What works for the last album by The Fireman is what had their debut album, Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest, fall flat. Fact is, if you have Paul McCartney asking you to make a remix album primarily based on his forgotten Off the Ground record, there isn’t much time to stress-test the quality of contemporary material. Youth may have incorporated a Wings track here or a McCartney solo piece there, but they were limited in what they could do because of the songs they had to work with. A great album all the same, but the Flowers in the Dirt spillover had a happenstance quality to it. It just so happened to feature a few songs from the Elvis Costello collaborating days and also served as a return to form for McCartney after the miserable Press to Play. Having Youth throw out another remix of McCartney-penned songs works better when there is no connection between them. This freedom pays off well.
Electric Arguments is bolstered by McCartney’s further involvement. It’s the first and only release by The Fireman to be publicly acknowledged by the Wings frontman, and the vocal selections Youth make from his backlog of material are magnificent. Opener Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight is a brilliant start. It captures the volatility of McCartney as a performer. He has this image as a squeaky-clean artist but songs like the Electric Arguments opener challenge that perception. He can handle the blues, the deeper rock tone, just as much as the pop pieces. Considering how rough Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest is, hearing instrumental arrangements worthy of McCartney’s own studio work is a relief and surprise. There are pieces throughout this third and likely final album by The Fireman that could slot onto McCartney’s best albums. Songs like Sing The Changes tap into the domesticity which stays close to his thematic style but gives them an instrumental overhaul worth hearing.
Electric Arguments is the last great McCartney album. His works to follow this have fed a similar lightness but are instrumentally sparse. Decades after first trying to, he has found a sweet blend of contemporary pop tones and a reverence which means every album from now to death is well received. Much of Electric Arguments is reliant on the bouncy, upbeat thrills McCartney can offer arrangements old and new, like Highway, but that is the thrill of hearing him pair up with Youth for a third time. Songs like Light from Your Lighthouse play into a soft country, bluegrass-type beat. The Fireman becomes a McCartney-led project, and rightly so. Youth takes a backseat as producer here but still has that influence over his sound, guiding McCartney in defiant, observant songs similar to Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. Tremendous what McCartney can do when left to sort all the instruments but prodded occasionally by Youth or Nigel Godrich to subvert expectations.
Rich sounds and honest instrumental spectacle are at the core of Electric Arguments. Dig into some of McCartney’s very best writings this century. Songs like Is This Love?, don’t just challenge his perception of domesticity, a constant of his songs since Ram, but evolve the meaning, they have a firmer grasp because Youth dares to nudge McCartney in a new direction. Godrich did the same. McCartney can get too comfortable in the studio. It’s what made his output in the 1980s so underwhelming. But give the Let It Be hitmaker an opposing force in the studio, be it John Lennon or Elvis Costello, and the best of his work comes through. Electric Arguments is a magnificent turnaround from the first Youth remix album. From a measly remixing of Off the Ground to a defiant subversion of all those classic McCartney sounds. The Fireman project ends with a monumental third album. An instrumentally rich powerhouse.
