Reviews
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Karen Dalton
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M. Ward
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George Harrison
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Songs Around the World
Another Country
Caroline Doctorow
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Paul McCartney
First, let’s get to the meat of the matter; this is Paul’s best album in years. The question is, does “Memory Almost Full” warrant a ‘deluxe edition’ so soon after its release, and does the deluxe edition offer anything that is particularly worthwhile or valuable to the consumer? From my perspective, the answers are, “No,” and “No.” My reasoning for this is simple, but I fail to understand why these issues exist at all.
For starters, the sound quality on the extra DVD is downright horrible. Throughout the entire performance segment, the audio is overdriven and distorted. This is more than annoying, since it makes it difficult to sit through and it makes repeated listening downright painful. Second, the content is meager, to put it kindly. The ‘live’ segment consists of only five tunes, and it is fine but far from extraordinary (for extraordinary visuals, get his 3 DVD box set, “McCartney”). The playing is executed well enough, but McCartney’s innate tendency to be dispassionate, aloof and distant is on full display here, so this is not one of his strongest performances. Then there are the two videos. The poor audio that plagued the live segment is not improved here either, and it mars the entire experience, but “Dance Tonight” is otherwise worthwhile. “Ever Present Past,” however, is dated and MUCH less compelling, and probably would have looked unimaginative and awkward had it aired on MTV in 1983.
There are three songs tacked onto the audio disk, but they don’t add much either.; “In Private” and “222” are lightweight instrumentals that could have vanished into “McCartney II,” while “Why So Blue” is nice, but slight. So, if I were to compare the “Deluxe” edition of “Memory Almost Full” with the original disk, I’d say that that you’d do well to buy the original CD, and spend your extra cash elsewhere (like, maybe, on that McCartney DVD collection?).
If you’re interested, here’s a LINK to my review for “Memory Almost Full” without the extra bits.
Grade: 
 
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