This album deals with the years 1985 and 1986. Many, including me, consider the mid-1980s to be a low point in his career. His "Tug of War" album in 1982 was great, one of his best, but then "Pipes of Peace" a year later was basically the leftover songs from that album, so it wasn't nearly as good. Then, after the longest gap between albums in his career so far, he put out "Press to Play" in 1986. It was received very poorly both critically and commercially. If you look at the crowdsourced ratings of his albums on rateyourmusic.com, "Press to Play" has the lowest rating of all his solo albums, even including his classical and experimental projects. I would argue that between the long wait before and after the album, and the album itself, his career momentum took a big hit, from which it never recovered. He'd been steadily having hits up until this point, but that pretty much stopped for good from 1986 onwards.
The strange thing though is that although I agree "Press to Play" is not a good McCartney album, he had a lot of songs from this time period that was better than what he put on the album. I don't really count "Spies like Us" as part of that. It was a top ten hit in the US, and almost one in Britain, but I think that was almost entirely due to career momentum and a movie tie-in. It's pretty much been forgotten by radio and compilation albums in the years since. I've included it, but I used a radio edit that's a minute shorter.
The other songs here come from all sources. Two are "Press to Play" bonus tracks. Two others are B-sides. Another is from a various artists compilation. Four others remain officially unreleased. But, in my opinion, it all adds up to a collection of songs that's stronger than "Press to Play."
I think a big problem with that album was the production. In general, artists like McCartney who made it big in the 1960s and 1970s suffered from bad production in the mid-1980s as they struggled to sound current. "Press to Play" is a classic example. So I've tried to find some alternate versions of the best songs from that album that aren't so overproduced. I've gone with unreleased studio outtakes of "Stranglehold" and "Footprints." They aren't very different, but I think they're a little better. I've chosen an official remix of "Angry." But I think the biggest and best difference is a live acoustic version of "Only Love Remains."
Frankly, if you have those four songs from that album here, you don't have much need for the actual "Press to Play" album. I don't even think much of the hit song, "Press" (which also has been pretty much totally forgotten in the years since). The one good thing about the album is that McCartney realized he was slacking musically, and he tried much harder for his next album, and put out a much better one.
If you're a fan of "Press to Play," then more power to you. But I have to call 'em like I see 'em, and I'd much rather listen to this album than that one.
01 Spies like Us [Single Version] (Paul McCartney)
02 Yvonne [Yvonne's the One] (Paul McCartney)
03 I Love This House (Paul McCartney)
04 Twice in a Lifetime (Paul McCartney)
05 Words of Love [Acoustic] (Paul McCartney)
06 Simple as That (Paul McCartney)
07 Stranglehold [Alternate Version] (Paul McCartney)
08 Footprints [Alternate Version] (Paul McCartney)
09 Tough on a Tightrope (Paul McCartney)
10 Angry [Remix] (Paul McCartney)
11 Write Away (Paul McCartney)
12 Only Love Remains [Live Acoustic] (Paul McCartney)
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For the album cover, I found a photo of McCartney from 1986. I don't know the details.
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