An ideal match-up of two songwriters is borderline impossible to find. Paul McCartney riffed well from what John Lennon did during their time in The Beatles. It was their differing outlooks that made the band so important. At least, it was a factor in the songs they wrote together. When the pair split off, it became clearer who was behind which song. Lennon’s work would revolve around the politics of a generation that continues to celebrate him as a man with his finger on the pulse of society. McCartney topped the charts with a series of classy collaborations and free-spirited songs, with Wings and alone. In the latter portion of his career, when he was freed of the Denny Laine and Linda McCartney-featuring band, he found himself working with Elvis Costello. As close as McCartney would ever get again to finding a balance like the one Lennon gave him. You can hear as much on Flowers in the Dirt. Crucially underrated, just like the follow-up, Off the Ground.
Where Off the Ground had a spirited, lighter touch to it, Flowers in the Dirt is frankly mean-spirited. A rarely heard side to McCartney who gives in to those darker moments which, even on Ram, sounded lovely. My Brave Face is the first song to hide that harsher jab. Domesticity is still the focus of McCartney, who would sing of relationships as a projection of comfort rather than a call for love. It’s a rather sweet touch from McCartney across the albums preceding and following this, though with Costello as his writing partner, the former Wings frontman is pushed out of his comfort zone. It would happen again on Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. Not every attempt at breaking down the domesticity works. Where the thrown-out plates of My Brave Face may be a thrill, the dated synth and studio sound which would hound McCartney through the 1980s can be heard on Rough Ride.
Costello’s vocal feature on You Want Her Too makes the song sound like a fight, rather than a song of praise. Conflict is crucial to Flowers in the Dirt. The best songs of these sessions are those which are unflinching, dismantling the usual McCartney style. Not quite hitting the high notes of Distractions, offering instead a rough-around-the-edges vocal performance, only adds to the fatigue of dying love found on Flowers in the Dirt. Those darker instrumental sounds still manage to cut through the shoddier production of We Got Married, a dark, loveless letter to a once-promising relationship. Put it There is a shorter, assured song which has the Costello influence loosen a little. It’s all part of preparing for some of the most searing pieces heard in the latter half of Flowers in the Dirt.
Songs of regret form the latter half. Figure of Eight and This One are astonishing examples of what McCartney can do when pulled into a rarer, raw sound. His instrumentals are the usual, showy, pop lightness, but they’re a Trojan horse for the darker tone. Messy instrumentals on How Many People feels like a softer moment from McCartney but it’s brought together by the follow-up song, Motor of Love. A quality album closer which has the soft essentials of McCartney’s pop-friendly voice, but also the agony of a broken heart which would bring about a lyrical depth he had not managed to provide since the start of the decade. Flowers in the Dirt is a superb opportunity to hear McCartney react to dwindling interest in his work. An essential listen, because this is where the former Beatles member begins considering what should be next for his music.
