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In its storied history, rock & roll has seen no stranger bedfellows than the Fireman, the electronic/dance duo featuring Sir Paul McCartney and acclaimed producer Martin “Youth” Glover. Since the Beatles’ lamented dissolution in 1969, McCartney has maintained a respectable solo career built on a mix of solid middle-of-the-road rock and classical excursions. Youth has established himself as one the most influential figures on the post-Beatles rock scene. Premiering as the bassist for tooth-gnashing rock industrialists Killing Joke, he has produced and/or remixed popular recordings for the Verve, Guns N’ Roses, Depeche Mode and Dido, among others. If nothing else, the McCartney/Youth collaborations promised to provide England’s notoriously gossipy rock press with juicy tales of clashing egos and irreconcilable creative differences.
But a funny thing happened on the way to the rumor mill: McCartney and Youth gelled far beyond expectations. Indeed, the Fireman’s 1993 debut album Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest was such a four-alarm triumph that even the surliest critics had to pay props (Britain’s Melody Maker magazine called the album’s genre-hopping fusion of pop, ambient, trance and house “staggeringly brilliant”). McCartney and Youth repaired to the studio in 1998 for their sophomore collection, Rushes.
Following a 10-year hiatus, the Fireman returned to the recording fold in 2008 with a 13-track collection of original McCartney compositions entitled Electric Arguments. Recorded in 13 days over the course of a year, each individual track on the album was composed and recorded in a single day. “Nothing Too Much Just Out of Sight” is arguably the most hardcore track Macca has recorded since the Beatles’ “Helter Skelter” heyday, while tunes like “Lifelong Passion (Sail Away)” and “Sing the Changes” fuse McCartney’s optimistic lyrics and melodies with Youth’s appealing electronic arrangements.
Provenance: Liverpool, England (McCartney); Africa (Youth)
Latest Release: Electric Arguments (2008)
© 2009 Nigel Music Media LLC. Used by permission.
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