Chaos And Creation In The Backyard [Enhanced] [Special Edition]

From Amazon.co.uk
Sir Paul is an elder statesman now, but Chaos and Creation in the Backyard finds him in considered and tastefully restrained form, penning songs worthy of his finest hour. McCartney crafts this collection of songs with exquisite balance, lining up haunting chimes and heartfelt lyrics ("Riding to Vanity Fair") alongside pounding "Hey Bulldog"-esque chords and eerily Beatles-ish multitracked vocals ("Promise to You Girl," "Fine Line") and, most impressively, distinctively new yet timeless gems of songcraft ("Anyway," "Jenny Wren"). Emotionally, Chaos and Creation manages to avoid being mired in oversentimentality, while retaining a powerful, understated sincerity. Poignant though it is, however, the record is essentially positive and hopeful: Sir Paul's playfulness beams through in his intonation, which picks up a line such as "It's not right/In your life/Too much rain" and breathes life and optimism into its words. "English Tea" completes the package, an unrepentantly twee serving of Anglo-nostalgia with recorder. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard displays the full range of McCartney's inimitable talent, presenting listeners with one of his finest solo albums. --Jonti Davies

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Chaos And Creation In The Backyard,Paul McCartney,Capitol,Pop,Pop/Rock,Rock,Rock/Pop,Singer/Songwriter,Soft Rock

Chaos And Creation In The Backyard [Enhanced] [Special Edition]

Average customer rating:

Far and away, the best bet for Mac's solo career
Paul still has it!!!
Best Songwriting in Years
What can I say?
Nigel Godrich eats worms!

Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
Paul McCartney
Manufacturer: Capitol
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000AL730O
Release Date: 2005-09-13

Tracks:

Fine Line
How Kind Of You
Jenny Wren
At The Mercy
Friends To Go
English Tea
Too Much Rain
A Certain Softness
Riding To Vanity Fair
Follow Me
Promise To You Girl
This Never Happened Before
Anyway

From Amazon.co.uk

Sir Paul is an elder statesman now, but Chaos and Creation in the Backyard finds him in considered and tastefully restrained form, penning songs worthy of his finest hour. McCartney crafts this collection of songs with exquisite balance, lining up haunting chimes and heartfelt lyrics ("Riding to Vanity Fair") alongside pounding "Hey Bulldog"-esque chords and eerily Beatles-ish multitracked vocals ("Promise to You Girl," "Fine Line") and, most impressively, distinctively new yet timeless gems of songcraft ("Anyway," "Jenny Wren"). Emotionally, Chaos and Creation manages to avoid being mired in oversentimentality, while retaining a powerful, understated sincerity. Poignant though it is, however, the record is essentially positive and hopeful: Sir Paul's playfulness beams through in his intonation, which picks up a line such as "It's not right/In your life/Too much rain" and breathes life and optimism into its words. "English Tea" completes the package, an unrepentantly twee serving of Anglo-nostalgia with recorder. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard displays the full range of McCartney's inimitable talent, presenting listeners with one of his finest solo albums. --Jonti Davies

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Customer Reviews:

Far and away, the best bet for Mac's solo career.......2007-07-05

With producer Nigel Godrich (a frequent Radiohead collaborator) helping out, Paul's latest effort may seem to reek of a desperation to connect with the hip, young crowd. In fact, Godrich seems to be on hand to make sense of the rougher impulses in McCartney's solo oeuvre, streamlining the mess into cohesion. Chaos and Creation is Paul's best and most consistent album since...well, ever.

Granted, I've heard less McCartney records than ones I haven't, but the general consensus suggests that the ones I've heard were the better ones. Although Paul had the most successful music career of the Beatles after the break-up, he's never hovered in the same league as Lennon or Harrison. But with this album, he proves that he may have been capable of crafting true albums all along; all he had to do, it seems, is just get away from those silly love songs. Even the songs that ring of the alarms of filler warning ("English Tea" especially) are pleasant and catchy enough not to make one feel the itch to reach for the skip button. The gentle lilt of "A Certain Softness" is an obvious highlight, as are the drawn out sprawls of "How Kind of You" and "Riding to Vanity Fair," and the zippy leadoff, "Fine Line." The album's often spare beauty is its greatest asset; don't expect it to grip you immediately, but it has better replay value than anything McCartney's done since his Beatles days.

Best cuts: "A Certain Softness," "This Never Happened Before," "Fine Line," "Riding to Vanity Fair," "At the Mercy," "How Kind of You," "Jenny Wren," "Anyway," "Too Much Rain," "Promise to You Girl"

Paul still has it!!!.......2007-07-03

I first listened to this album when it came out in 2005. It took me til 2007 to really understand and appreciate this album. I had to listen to it a number of times before I started to like the songs. I had to understand that this Macca is not of Beatle fame already. One can't really detach him from the Beatles because they were such a famous group in the 60's.

Paul still writes with the poppy feel that he often used when he was still with the Beatles. The melodicism and the melancholy in past Beatle albums are still there.

Here are a few points that I have noticed:

Jenny Wren--- very Blackbird style
A Certain Softness---- still remember 'And I love her'?
English Tea--- flashes of Eleonor Rigby
This Never Happened Before--- basslines akin to basslines from Rubber Soul album and upward albums
Riding to Vanity Fair--- can pass for a track in Abbey Road

For me, to really appreciate Paul now is to not really look back with his past Beatlse work. We should understand that his inspirations change through time but his talent for writing songs is still there. I still like him now and I am thankful that he still writes today because there's way too much groups that churn out songs that can be passed for noise these days.

Best Songwriting in Years.......2007-07-02

Someone once said that Paul McCartney conveys his feelings, not through lyrics but through his use of melody. No where is that more apparent than on this album. I bought this cd during the divorce scandal, so maybe my impression is colored by hindsight, but the melodies and chord sequences on some of the songs are so sad, that it's almost hard to listen. Mind you I've been a fan for 37 years, and maybe this also colored my impression,but I can't listen to songs like 'Jenny Wren', 'Vanity Fair', and 'Friends to Go' without feeling a heavy, sadness. It doesn't matter what or who he's singing about,in fact the lyrics don't even matter. The melodies convey such sadness, that even on upbeat songs like, 'A Certain Softness', and 'English Tea', I still felt that heaviness. I get the same feeling when I listen to Paul's part of the long medly on Abbey Road,ie; 'You Never Give Me Your Money', 'Golden Slumbers',etc. This guy writes the sweetest melodies when he's going through s***. So I love this cd. Before I bought it, I hadn't owned a McCartney album since 'Band on the Run'. I had always been a Beatles fan, but after 'Band on the Run', (which I loved) I got away from Paul for many years because I just didn't like what he was doing anymore. 'Silly Love Songs?'.. yuk.. collaborations with Michael Jackson and Stevie Wonder?...oh come on, what is he doing?, I thought. I concentrated on punk and new wave, alternative, and 60's music (especially British), and of course I never stopped loving the Beatles. Fast forward to 2006, and it's all over the news that my favorite bass player is going through a nasty divorce. I found out that his latest album contains many songs about what he was going through, and I was intrigued, so I bought it. On first listen, I didn't like it, and incidentally a lot of the reviewers who gave it less than 4 stars probably wrote their reviews after only one listen. But the second time I put it on, I was blind sided. Some cynical people who still live in the land of 'Silly Love Songs' and think that McCartney lost it after he lost the Beatles (I was one of those people),will not agree with what I'm about to say but I'll say it anyway...This cd contains some of the most beautiful music he's done in years and some of it is as good as anything he did in the Beatles. 'Jenny Wren' could have easily fit on the White Album, Abbey Road or even Revolver. It's just as good as Eleanor Rigby (ouch, can't believe I'm saying that). 'A Certain Softness' is as romantic and sexy as 'Here There and Everywhere', and that too would have fit nicely on Revolver. You really feel how much he loves the two women he's singing about, but he also seems to be singing about loss, which lends a sadness to this wonderful song. Critics have written off 'English Tea', saying it's trite, and one of the weaker songs. I guess they don't get the ironic humor of it, and they missed the gorgeous melody too...oh well their loss...don't listen to them. If 'English Tea' had been on the White Album, it would have stood up well to 'Martha My Dear'. Some people say 'Friends to Go' is about George Harrison. Did Paul actually say this? Whether he did or not, it does seem to be about a relationship that has been strained, and the author wants to make things right...(before it's too late?) 'Riding to Vanity Fair' is the most foreboding, bitter song I've ever heard from McCartney. Of course the "Vanity Fair" analogy seems to suggest it's about Ms. Mills-McCartney, and actually that's a pretty obvious metaphor. Who else could he possibly be singing about? Another reviewer said that it's about his daughter Heather, but I don't think that's right. I did an advance Google search of Heather Louise McCartney and a possible Vanity Fair article and nothing came up. But everyone remembers Heather Mills' Vanity Fair interview from 2002.

After buying this album, I came back to McCartney. I bought 'Driving Rain','Flowers in the Dirt','Ram' 'McCartney', a cd replacement of 'Band on the Run', and some of his live albums. I even bought his classical cd, 'Ecc Cor Meum'. I love all of them, and I can't believe what I was missing all these years. With 'Chaos and Creation' the great pop melodist is back. You will love this album. Even the cover photo is brilliant. A class act.

What can I say?.......2007-06-27

I love McCartney. Fav song on this CD, This Never Happened Before. Check it out on Lake House.

Nigel Godrich eats worms!.......2007-06-23

Get a copy of "Tug of War" before you start advising Paul McCartney on how to record an album, Nigel! This one has virtually ruined everything.

Average customer rating:

Have you ever noticed......?
One of McCartney's Best Releases in a While
A Masterpiece That Kinda Sneaks Up On You
Good, but not enough for being Paul McCartney
IT'S ALL IN THE STARS

Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
Paul McCartney
Manufacturer: Capitol
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000AL730Y
Release Date: 2005-09-13

Tracks:

Fine Line
How Kind of You
Jenny Wren
At the Mercy
Friends to Go
English Tea
Too Much Rain
A Certain Softness
Riding to Vanity Fair
Follow Me
Promise to You Girl
This Never Happened Before
Anyway

Tracks:

Documentary - Between Chaos and Creation (DVD)
Studio Performance Video - Fine Line (DVD)
Animated Piece - Line Art (DVD)
Instrumental Tracks - Anyway, At the Mercy, Riding to Vanity Fair (DVD)
Menu Piece - How Kind Of You (DVD)

From Amazon.co.uk

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Customer Reviews:

Have you ever noticed......?.......2007-01-10

Every time I've walked the aisles of (now defunct) Tower Records, BestBuy, F.Y.E, or any other music outlet, I show this CD to the person working that section and turn it upside down. Same reaction every time: "Whoa, Paul's name reads the same way upside down or right-side up!".

I used to think that true album artword was lost when the 12" vinyl record format was gone...but not anymore! I just wonder, though, how was the "art guy" (or girl) commissioned for this piece? "Dude, (or dude-ess), I want you to figure out a way to have Sir Paul's name read the same way when you turn it upside down".

I'll bet most people didn't even notice it. But that in itself makes it a bit cool, doesn't it?

One of McCartney's Best Releases in a While.......2007-01-08

Ever since the change of millennium, the Beatles have sort of been in a new phase. Now there are only two of them, Paul and Ringo. Of the two living Beatles, Paul is definitely more in the spotlight. So when this CD was released, there would be a lot of scrutiny over it.

And Paul lived up to the test. He produced as CD that was energetic and fun, that revisited old styles but could still show that Paul could produce new and fresh material. "Fine Line," "How Kind of You," "Jennie Wren," and "At the Mercy" are the first four songs on the CD and perhaps these are the strongest four on the album. They are all strong songs; melodically, harmonically, and lyrically. From these four tracks, you can tell that this is going to be a mix of rock mentality and sentimentality which has made Paul's songs so successful.

The album continues "Friends to Go," a very catchy folk rock song. On his 'Chaos and Creation' TV special, Paul describes "Friends to Go" as a "George song," or what sounded to Paul like a song that could be written by George. The CD continues with "English Tea," a catchy piano number complete with orchestral accompaniment in typical Paul fashion.

Even the weaker tracks are catchy, and the whole album possesses a relaxing, zone-out quality. 'Chaos and Creation' ends with a simple piano ballad titled "Anyway," and the CD comes to a close with a lulling quality and a completeness. All in all, this is a pretty strong release from an artist whose career has spanned the careers of many.

Perhaps what is coolest about this CD is what is on the cover: an ambigram of Paul McCartney's name. Looking at the album cover, you see McCartney's name written out in a peculiar font. If you rotate the album 180º, you will see the exact same image of his name. Very cool.

A Masterpiece That Kinda Sneaks Up On You.......2006-06-06

The first time you hear it, you like it but don't love it. Then you hear it again. And again. And again. At that point, for me, it became my favorite McCartney album -- period. Right now, it's the only CD in my car and I play it, and sing along with it, constantly. There are some beautiful lyrics and haunting melodies. With the entirety of his work to choose from, I would be quite happy to go to a concert and have Paul sing this entire album, from beginning to end -- and sing nothing else -- and have the time of my life. Check this out "I guess you'd rather see me grow --- into a better man than the one you know". Or this, "The definition of friendship, apparently ought to be showing support for the one that you love". Paul wrote every note, plays every instrument, sings every lyric. And the very thought that he would lose the Grammy to Kelly Clarkson, a manufactured artist, is absurdly appalling. Talent is no longer rewarded I guess. But for me, the music is its own reward. And THIS is a great reward.

Good, but not enough for being Paul McCartney.......2006-05-21

First of all let me tell you that I'm a very big McCartney fan. I love CDs like "Pipes of peace"; "Band on the run"; "Tug of war"; "London town"; "Off the ground". This one has very nice songs, in some way sounds like in the 60's or 70's, but, for me, Paul can do much more than this. This is a good album if you don't think this is Paul McCartney, but, knowing this are their songs, I need more.
Maybe he wasn't living the best moment of his life when he did it, but I bet his next album will be much better than this one.
So, this is a good album but don't expect to hear some genius songs.
The DVD included in this CD is nice. A good piece.

IT'S ALL IN THE STARS.......2006-05-16

good side:Paul's playing most of the instruments (26 to be exact) himself, wonderful arrangements, lyric sheet, bonus DVD
bad side:no sign of his son James on the CD, could have used more pictures
standout tracks:fine line; how kind of you; jenny wren; friends to go; riding to vanity fair; promise to you girl; anyway

Average customer rating:

McCartney back to classic form

Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
Paul McCartney
Manufacturer: Toshiba EMI Japan
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Pop | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music

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ASIN: B000A7TFEU
Release Date: 2005-09-19

Tracks:

Fine Line
How Kind of You
Jenny Wren
At the Mercy
Friends to Go
English Tea
Too Much Rain
Certain Softness
Riding to Vanity Fair
Follow Me
Promise to You Girl
This Never Happened Before
Anyway

Album Description

Japanese pressing features an exclusive bonus track. On Chaos And Creation In The Back Yard, Sir Paul tries something he did on his first self-titled solo album in 1970, he's playing every instrument himself, including the guitar, bass, drums, flugelhorn and harmonium. And to make sure those Beatles days find their way into his new record, McCartney recorded 'Jenny Wren' which he says is the daughter of Blackbird. Co-produced with Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck), Chaos And Creation is McCartney's first record since 2001's Driving Rain. EMI. 2005.

Customer Reviews:

McCartney back to classic form.......2005-08-23

Let me first say this, this is a great Mccartney album! Fine Line is the single an uptempo song with very nice changes in tempo, a fast piano that keeps pumpin' on and off, Paul plays almost every instrument in this whole album, so that's great!
The second song is "promise to you girl" a slow start then a midtempo piano song, the best part is the guitar break/solo, sounds very 70's but funky.
The third song is Jenny Wren, a classic for sure, a bit like "Blackbird" perhaps even more haunting.
4th one is "Too much rain", again pure macca magic, probably the single (?) in France. Beautiful melody and a real comforting song.
The sound of the songs are great, you'll hear it's Paul inmediately, his voice is very good, so all in all the expectations are higher than ever for a new Mccartney album. Worth the wait. If i've listened to the rest, i will tell you more about it. For sure.

Average customer rating:

on the Japanese import version

Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
Paul McCartney
Manufacturer: Toshiba EMI
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Pop | Styles | Music

Singer-Songwriters | Pop | Styles | Music

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Chaos And Creation In The Backyard
Jenny Wren
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Memory Almost Full [Deluxe Limited Edition]

ASIN: B000A7TFF4
Release Date: 2005-09-22

Tracks:

Fine Line
How Kind Of You
Jenny Wren
At The Mercy
Friends To Go
English Tea
Too Much Rain
A Certain Softness
Riding To Vanity Fair
Follow Me
Promise To You Girl
This Never Happened Before
Anyway
She Is So Beautiful

Album Description

Japanese pressing features one exclusive bonus track, 'She Is So Beautiful' along with a bonus DVD (NTSC/Region 2) that features the same content as the US pressing. On Chaos And Creation In The Back Yard, Sir Paul tries something he did on his first self-titled solo album in 1970, he's playing every instrument himself, including the guitar, bass, drums, flugelhorn and harmonium. And to make sure those Beatles days find their way into his new record, McCartney recorded 'Jenny Wren' which he says is the daughter of Blackbird. Co-produced with Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck), Chaos And Creation is McCartney's first record since 2001's Driving Rain. EMI. 2005. * Please note you will need an All Code DVD player to view.

Album Details

Limited Edition Special Package of Sir Paul Mccartney's 2005 Full Length Album, his First after a Four Year Respite. Produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, XTC), who Reportedly Pushed the Legendary Singer to Bring Out his Best. This Set Includes a Dvd with Two Previously Unpublished Tracks, Interview, Recording Session Footage, Photo Gallery, and More. Dvd is Ntsc Format, Region Code 2.

Customer Reviews:

on the Japanese import version.......2005-10-19

Just a couple brief remarks on the Japanese Special Edition.
The DVD is indeed Region-encoded and may not play on your home dvd player, if you live in North America.
The bonus-track, She is so Beautiful, is fine, but it does not really enhance this already excellent album. So, if you're thinking of shelling out 50 bucks for this one track, you should know that it is a respectable, but lesser track from these outstanding sessions.

Average customer rating: