The circumstances behind the making of this album sprung from a time in McCartney’s career he’ll probably want to forget. Wings were due to go out on a tour of Japan early in 1980, but due to an oversight by McCartney himself, several pounds of hashish was seized from his belongings. He was imprisoned in a Tokyo jail for ten days and the tour of Japan was shelved indefinitely. After the ten days, the Japanese authorities must have thought McCartney had learned his lesson, and released him with no further charges. He and the family then retreated back to England to lick their wounds, several thousand pounds lighter in the pocket [he had to pay off the Japanese tour promoters all the advance ticket sales!]. From this the seeds of ‘McCartney II’ were born.

Employing the same train of thought that produced ‘McCartney’, being spontaneous was the name of the game, and making stuff up purely for his own [and family’s] amusement. Time wasn’t an issue and was answering to no one! Experimenting with the latest electronic equipment at the time, he came up with ‘Temporary Secretary’, ‘Front Parlour’, ‘Frozen Jap’ and ‘Check my Machine’ [this became the b-side of the second single ‘Waterfalls’].

But, of course, amongst the electronica there were the McCartney ‘songs’. The very catchy ‘Coming Up’ was the first single [praised by Lennon at the time of release]. ‘Summer’s Day Song’ and One of these Days’ would fit seamlessly onto ‘The Beatles’. The atmospheric loveliness of ‘Waterfalls’ as mention earlier, was the 2nd single. Inexplicably, it sank without trace, barely touching the top 40. It deserved better. ‘Bogey Music’ was inspired by a children’s story written by Raymond Briggs entitled ‘Fungus the Bogeyman’. It’s silly and throwaway, but that is the premise of this album! nothing’s perfect/everything’s perfect!

‘McCartney II’ is an uneven collection of tunes admittedly, but it appeals to the listener because of this. It’s mostly fun and it moves along nicely. It isn’t his greatest moment, that’s obvious, but it shows McCartney has a sense of humour and is prepared to go [slightly] left field now and again. He was at an impasse in his career, and this album plugs a gap in a time of creative uncertainty.

Let’s face it, most singer/songwriters would give their right arm to produce this kind of material!

7/10