Flowers in the Dirt

Bruce Beatlefan (January 8, 2007)

The holy grail of Paul McCartney\'s post-Beatles career are the three albums Ram, Band on the Run, and Flowers in the Dirt. To make an imperfect parallel to the classic Beatles albums, Band on the Run is marvelous production injected with a lot of happy good humor in the manner of Abbey Road and Ram is the giddy euphoria of Sgt. Pepper. Flowers in the Dirt does not have that instant emotional starburst, but represents the varied and superb songcraft and fresh, relevant lyricism of Revolver.

Mr. Declan MacManus (aka Elvis Costello) deserves a share of credit for the success of this album. This collaboration definitely produced positive vibes...but I do get perturbed at the pervasive idea this album\'s every virtue is due to his involvement. Criminy, he only assisted on four tracks; the truth is that Paul was in dead-red top form.

This album particularly emphasizes the hold that Paul\'s family has to his heart. To his departed father he sings the touching \"Put it There\" and to his teenage daughters he pours out his heart in \"Don\'t Be Careless Love\" (and, maybe, \"That Day is Done\"--I can\'t figure out what that song is about). We have had reason for concern in recent albums with Paul and Linda\'s marriage (songs like \"Waterfalls\", \"The Pound is Sinking\", and \"Tough on a Tightrope\"), but in this album he strongly affirms his Lovely Linda with the wisdom of experience (\"We Got Married\"), with giddy joy (bonus track \"Flying to My Home\"), with tenderness (\"This One\"), with exasperated humor (\"Figure of Eight\"), and with a little roguishness (\"Rough Ride\"). And with two other superb tracks (\"Motor of Love\" and \"Loveliest Thing\") he suddenly becomes the suave romancer.

Sprinkled within those tracks are his strong Elvis collaborations, \"My Brave Face\" and \"You Want Her Too\" (which is sort of a depraved \"She Loves You\"), along with lightweight but enjoyable \"Distractions\", \"How Many People\" and \"Ou Est Le Soleil\". Altogether, this is a strong and confident album from Paul McCartney, extremely satisfying and worthy of the acclaim given to his best work.

John (July 14, 2005)

This is a good effort by Paul.
There are some terrific songs here. The best being My Brave Face, This One, Put It There, Figure of Eight, That Day is Done.
We Got Married and How Many People are not to bad either.
Distractions is an embarassment. Impossible to listen to.
Overall a very good album and a good listen.

OB (July 6, 2005)

Flowers In The Dirt is genius, the McCartney/Costello co-writes are great but the best song is the touching acoustic-led Put It There.

Harry (May 27, 2004)

Figure Of 8, Distractions, Put It There, Motor Of Love are all good but How Many People, Don't Be Careless Love and We Got Married are very ordinary.