http://www.nme.com/news/paul-mccartney/39866



Is Paul McCartney 'firing' at old label EMI?

Sep 22, 2008

Paul McCartney has promoted speculation he is attacking his old record label on his new album.

The former Beatle left EMI last year, branding the company "boring", and it's been suggested that the sleeve for promotional copies will be another comment on the label.

The artwork (pictured) shows what seems to be a fragment of the sleeve, spelling out what could be EMI, leading some commentators to believe it will be a further attack.

However a more plausible suggestion might be that the E and M actually belong to the word Fireman.

McCartney released a couple of albums in the 1990s with producer and ex-Killing Joke man Youth, and the duo are said to be working together again.

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1) Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight
2) Two Magpies
3) Sing The Changes
4) Traveling Light
5) Highway
6) Light From Your Lighthouse
7) Sun Is Shining
8) Dance ‘Til We’re High
9) Lifelong Passion
10) Is This Love?
11) Lovers In A Dream
12) Universal Here, Everlasting Now
13 Don’t Stop Running

Produced By Paul McCartney & Youth / All tracks written by Paul McCartney

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001GKYBXA/?tag=imwan-20

Clearly.

Even more Clearly...

http://www.thefiremanmusic.com

What's not clear is why Sir Paul would resurrect this persona....the first Fireman album was absolutely the worst record I ever heard.

I am somewhat of a Paul fan (don't love everything he's done, but like more than not like), and everyone else I played it for agreed....el stinko....

The first release grew old quickly, but the second one is fantastic! Looking forward to more of this; however I do have the "charity" track "Lifelong Passion (Sail Away)" and was very unimpressed. I hope that is not a preview of the new material, sounds like leftover "Chaos and Creation..." set to an Indian beat.

I enjoyed both Fireman releases and look forward to this new one.

I am looking forward to this, and I hope it is as good as "Rushes", but if "Lifelong Passion" is the same track as the $25.00 charity bonus track "Sail Away (Lifelong Passion)", then it already contains one more clunker than the last Fireman album.

Looking forward to hearing more before I get too excited.

Well considering I forgot all about that charity track, I hope it's the same one that's released on this album so I can finally include it in my collection of spare McCartney tracks. I forget, was that a download-only track?

Also, this is to contain the first vocals on a Fireman CD? I just hope it's not like that 2 LP set, Twin Freaks. I like the Fireman discs, but wasn't crazy about the Twin Freaks stuff.

How about that inlay card for Rushes!

It was a limited-time download-only gift with a $25.00 donation to a charity that worked to remove landmines.

If it is released on the album, is it still a "spare McCartney track"?

I kind of consider it as such. There is a fine line with some tracks. That one in particular was probably never intended to be part of a third Fireman CD, I'm guessing.

Actually the press release promoted the charity track as a preview of an upcoming Fireman project; I had just hoped it wouldn't make the album. To be fair, the track may sound much better within the context of the album. I'll give it a second chance in November, but I'm still hoping the other 12 tracks are a bit more solid.

Has anyone heard the new Fireman album? Any better than "Memory Almost Full"?

Here's the press release:

The Fireman Finds His Voice With Brand New Album Electric Arguments
U.S. Release Date: November 18, 2008

The Fireman has returned after a ten-year break with something to sing about. Electric Arguments, the brand new third studio album from the mysterious duo–out in the U.S. November 18 on MPL/ATO–is their first release to feature vocals.

“Ambient dreams in rainbow arches describe the circles of The Fireman” is how the duo described their music in a rare interview around the release of their last album ‘Rushes’ in 1998. Their first album ‘Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest’, released in 1993, was a solid ambient dance album heavy on electronics. Around this time the identity of The Fireman was unknown until the press exposed the duo as none other than Paul McCartney and Youth. The now defunct music bible Melody Maker heaped praise on the project, “Paul McCartney has discovered dance music - the results are staggeringly brilliant. They (The Fireman) take a melody and, with dexterous genre-hopping through ambient, trance and house, evolve a number of breathtaking variations.”

Last year The Fireman returned to work again to start work on what would become Electric Arguments, ultimately finding thirteen days and recording a song on each of those days over the course of a little more than a year. The results this time are entirely different from any previous Fireman release.

Earlier this year The Fireman donated a new track, Lifelong Passion (which appears on Electric Arguments) to the charity Adopt-A-Minefield. This new track marked a directional change for The Fireman, showcasing a more traditional song based sound with vocals, completely unlike anything on the previous two albums. Speculation increased as a ’studio source’ was quoted in The Times of London as describing their new sound ‘like Arcade Fire meets Led Zeppelin’. So what had The Fireman been up to and what does the album sound like?

Electric Arguments is an eclectic and varied album consisting of thirteen tracks, each written and recorded in the space of one day. McCartney and Youth went into the studio with no master plan or clear direction. Instead they let the project take a life of its own, with the results surprising them as much as anyone.

The record opens with a stylistically diverse trifecta: Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight is a classic rock attention grabber followed by a hairpin turn in the form of the acoustic driven Two Magpies and yet another direction with Sing The Changes, a euphoric upbeat song with an undeniable and instantly memorable melody. Electric Arguments continues in this fashion, each track with an entirely different personality yet all meshing perfectly. Other standouts include ‘Light From Your Lighthouse’, ‘Sun Is Shining’ and ‘Dance ‘Til We’re High’, all in keeping with the genre-hopping spirit of the first two Fireman albums and demonstrating Paul McCartney’s unending interest in pure musical possibilities. This is an album set to both surprise and delight the listener. Made with no record company restraints or a set release date to work to, Electric Arguments is a work of omplete artistic and creative freedom.

Bump: this release has been pushed back to November 25th.

I had a funny feeling about this release. I see there is an extra track available via iTunes that the domestic U.S. CD does not have.

And the official web site (http://www.thefiremanmusic.com/purchase/) lists a forthcoming Digital + Deluxe Limited Edition release with extra tracks (or mixes). I hate it when artists do this. This just isn't the best time in the U.S. economy to be doing this sort of thing to the loyal fans. Still, I might just have to consider it. Maybe it's time for another stimulus check!

Holy cow! This album isn't like anything I expected. It's not at all like the previous two albums under The Fireman name. It's more than just having lyrics/vocals. This is a rock album as opposed to an electronic album. It's almost got a White Album rawness to it, while at the same time, it's got loads of layers of sound to explore. Comparing this to the previous Fireman albums is like comparing the new Eno/Byrne album to their first release. It's the same guys, but totally different results.

Oh, by the way, I really like this!! I hope everyone who has given up on Paul over the years gives this a listen!! This is that rocker from Liverpool sneaking out to visit!!

Neal

Neal is dead on about this. I too thought of the White Album a few times while listening, and Paul sounds great. I think this is his best at least since
"Run Devil Run". What a pleasant surprise this record has turned out to be.

Totally agree with Kid and Neal about this! Man, Paul continues to break ground and push himself.
A man of his age is not expected to deliver the goods like this. Will be getting much play here!

Rick A.

Wow, it good, and not at all what I expected. Bravo Paulie!

Saw the video this morning for the single on VH1-much better than I expected, but then, I liked Paul's last album too. Having Youth involved doesn't hurt any either-he's pretty damn good!

Great song ("Sing The Changes"), terrible video.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcfiViHa1F4[/youtube]