This might be awful to say, but some of the best music from McCartney's (solo) career has come after the death of Linda McCartney in 1998. It has given his music more of an emotional center, which can sometimes be missing from the projects with Wings. The first two songs seem to address these emotions head on: "Lonely Road" and "From a Lover to a Friend." Each are simple returns to roots, with the former being a straight-ahead rocker and the latter being a lovely ballad. Both feel like songs that could have been written in the beginning of his solo career. Given that McCartney's greatest strength is his melodies, the greatest effect the album has is that it reclaims his strengths. Those first two tracks are knockouts, while "Driving Rain" sounds like something that would've happened if the Beatles had been together to this day. The closing track, though, "Rinse in the Raindrops," echoes the kind of long, multi-part songs that McCartney's favored in the most ambitious parts of his career and might be the best thing here. The worst is "Freedom," a hastily written 9/11 tribute song. So simple, grating and bone-headed, it spoils the greatness of everything before it.
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