mccarwildl

Wild Life – “I treasure this album, and was delighted to learn a shootout had been done for it.”

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Paul McCartney Available Now

Our good customer Austin had this to say about his most recent purchase:

Hi Tom,

It bears remembering that McCartney was reviled by the music press of the day, who were stridently left-wing and far more sympathetic to Lennon and Harrison for their social activism than whether their latest music releases were any good.

Harrison regrettably piled on in an interview with Record Mirror, saying of Wild Life, “the songs are pretty poor–and the sounds! The recording was very bad. It’s as if he’s forgotten everything, I was really disappointed.”

Which is to say I agree with your general point that the album is underestimated and underappreciated. It’s not his best work and perhaps not a great album, but certainly a good one containing a lot of worthwhile experiments if also a few that don’t quite come off. I treasure this album, and was delighted to learn a shootout had been done for it.

I’m mildly surprised you didn’t take the opportunity to point out Alan Parsons as one of the two engineers credited on the sessions, the other being Tony Clark. Parsons is also an uncredited backing singer on the chorus of ‘Tomorrow’.

To quote Paul himself on the eve of the Wings 1972 European tour, “I’m not trying to anything staggering, it’ll be a good band that can play good music, that’s good enough for me.” Wild Life easily holds its own against these ambitions.

Best regards,

Austin

Austin,

I have to admit that I have not played the album in decades, and the last time I did play it, I’m sure it would have been the domestic pressing. Even those were hard to find back in the 70s. It didn’t sell well and disappeared from the bins shortly after release. All I really have are old memories of the album to go by, and you can imagine how reliable those are.

The staff did the shooout. They found the killer copies that made it to the site as Hot Stampers, including the one you bought.

The important thing is that you like the album and now you can hear it in all its glory. What could be better?

There are plenty of records I love dearly — many of them qualifying as Desert Island Discs even — for which buyers are hard to find.

Most of them we still do shootouts for, although there are plenty that we were forced to give up on. If there are no buyers, we have no business doing a shootout for the sake of doing a shootout, especially when there are so many deserving titles waiting in the queue, often for months.

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Paul McCartney / Wild Life

More of the Music of Paul McCartney

  • This INCREDIBLE Apple UK import copy (the first to hit the site in many years) has Shootout Winning Triple Plus (A+++) sound or very close to it on both sides
  • Both of these sides are big and rich, with tons of bottom end weight and three-dimensional space, the kind of sound that most other pressings only hint at
  • It had been a long time since we last shot out this title, but after spending the day listening to copies like this we found ourselves LOVING IT!
  • Forget the dubby domestic pressings and whatever crappy Heavy Vinyl record they’re making these days – the UK LPs are the only way to fly on Wild Life

Let’s face it: finding good sounding McCartney records with the exception of the first album is pretty darn tough. From Ram on it’s slim pickings, even on import. Most of those later albums sound like cassettes; they’re as dead as the proverbial doornail. They bore us to tears. Wild Life stood up and showed us that there’s more good sound to be found after McCartney’s debut.

If you want the ultimate nexus of music and sound for McCartney, a Hot Stamper of the first album is the way to go. That said, this album is MUCH BETTER sounding than we ever suspected, and it’s much better music than we were led to believe by the critics. If you aren’t happy with it we will give you your money back.

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Paul McCartney / Wild Life – Our Last Shootout Was in 2010

Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Paul McCartney Available Now

This Apple UK Import LP has TWO outstanding sides! We were not all that familiar with the album going into this shootout, but after spending the day listening to copies like these we found ourselves LOVING IT!

Let’s face it: finding good sounding McCartney records with the exception of the first album is practically impossible. From Ram on it’s slim pickings, even on import. Most of those later albums sound like cassettes; they’re as dead as the proverbial doornail. They bore us to tears.

Wild Life stood up and showed us that there’s more good sound to be found after McCartney’s debut. Band On The Run on the right imports can sound quite good, but I would say without hesitation that the best copies of Wild Life kill it in the sonics department.

If you want the ultimate nexus of music and sound for McCartney, a Hot Stamper of the first album is the way to go. Expect to pay (us anyway) at least $500 for such a record, which is neither here nor there. This album is MUCH BETTER sounding than we ever suspected, and it’s much better music than we were led to believe by the critics. If you aren’t happy with it we will give you your money back.