Flaming Pie

Explaining how the Beatles got their name, John Lennon once wrote, "A Man appeared on a flaming pie and said unto them 'From this day on, you are Beatles with an 'A.'" Paul McCartney obviously has the Beatles on his mind on his first album since the BEATLES ANTHOLOGY blitz, and, as the title suggests, he's also keeping a healthy sense of humor about it. The songs on FLAMING PIE include a couple of quintessential Paul love ballads; some perky, Everly Brothers-style pop-rock; a stab at Aretha Franklin soul balladry of the sort the Beatles might well have tried in their later days; a screaming R&B throwaway that emerged from a jam with Ringo Starr; and, what the heck, a Texas blues number that features Paul and not-even-close-to-a-Beatle Steve Miller trading vocal lines. Some tunes feature Paul solo; others find him and Beatles disciple Jeff Lynne sharing the instruments and production. A couple add sweet orchestrations by Beatles producer George Martin, and one features Paul's son James on lead guitar.

It's a little bitta this and a little bitta that--sometimes silly, as on the title cut, which is a barrage of John Lennonesque nonsense lines, and sometimes touching, as on the acoustic love ballads "Somedays" and "Calico Skies." The former faintly echoes the melody of the Beatles' "For No One"; the latter is as unabashed (and un-silly) a love song as McCartney has ever written.