The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 478

POPULAR RECORDS Get It Better At The VJherehouse'n Disappointing Solo Album From Paul McCartney APPEARING TODAY 3 P.M. AT THE MUSIC CEfJ ER 'v A BY ROBERT II BURN it i 't 5.98 DISC 8 TRACK OR CASSETTE 4.46 each TfkilfMUeLlt. 1010 AwArfurA fin Af. ft. -fZri i 1 i i5rz I I BetthevH; Wellington's Victoiy, Op.

91 lm Staff, A Magnificent Recording First Crown Jewels of the Waltz Kings SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar) Krause, LJ Bar.j Male Chorus of the Mendelssohn Club Great OrmcrJy LP's UJ Four Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 12 saint 5je: Concerto No. in Minor? Falls: Nights in the Gardens of Spain, Rubinstein, Pianist n. Appalachian Spring Shostakovich: Symphony No.

14 Curtin, Estes, Eass Telemann: 4 Concertos for Diverse Solo Instruments Chair" Soloists) TrhsilinuclfU vmnhnnu Kn For the second lime in a row, Paul McCartney has come up with a disappointing solo album. As with last year's "McCartney," there are, to be sure, some pleasant moments in the new album, "Ram," but ihey are rather modest moments, far less than we have come to expect from an artist of McCartney's proven stature. In a way, "Rain" (Apple SMAS 3375) Js a more disUubing setback for McCartney than the first solo album, since the first album a very informal work could be excused as a mistake in judgment. "Ram," a much more careful, formal work, raises more fundamental questions about McCartney's abilities and direction in these post-JJeatle days. One of the puzzling things about the first solo album was why McCartney, surely knowing all the attention his first effort away from the Beatles would receive, did not spend more time perfecting it.

The album, as you recall, was like a family photo album warm and personal at times, but also undeveloped and unsatisfying as a whole. McCartney played all the instruments and handled all the vocals himself. For whatever reason, McCartney chose to begin with a modest album rather than the "blockbuster" that his fans and others, no doubt, expected from the man who had leeome the leader of the Beatles. But the album, despite a few rewarding moments (such as "Maybe I'm Amazed" and "Every "was too incomplete. But there is nothing intentionally modest about "Ham." It is an ambitious, highly polished, elaborately produced album.

But its impact, ironically, may prove to le even less than the first solo album which, despite its weakness, at least had a consistent mood and focus to it. Obvious Temptation The most obvious temptation, of course, is to discuss the album in terms of the other solo Beatle works, notably George Harrison's "All Things Must Fass" and John Lennon's "John Len-nonPlastic Ono Band." Each of those albums was a "blockbuster" in a different way Harrison's album was an enormous popular success, one of the biggest-selling albums in recent years, while Lennon's recording, to some, was a staggeringly impressive work, called by some publications (including The Times) the best album of 1970. "Ram," most likely, will not be able to match the sales of the Harrison album (there isn't, for instance, anything with the commercial sound of "My Sweet Lord" in it) and it has none, for me at least, of the artistic excellence of the Lennon album. McCartney shares much of the credit on "Ram" with his wife, Linda. The album, in fact, is by "Paul and Linda McCartney." She is listed as co-writer on several of the album's 11 songs and is co-producer of the album.

Unlike the first album, McCartney does use other musicians, including a full orchestra on some tracks. The first song woithy of attention is "Too Many People," a sort of musical extension of Thomas Malthus that includes some of the humorous irony of the vintage Beatles. It begins: "Too many people going underground Too many reaching for a piece of cakeToo many people pulled and pushed around Too many waiting for that lucky break." The song continues: "Too many people sharing party linesToo many people never sleeping lateToo many people paying parking finesToo many hungry people losing weight." Then, the song, in one of the album's few lyric surprises, turns, like an O. Henry story, into what appears to be a sort of statement about the resolutions of one's problems in a difficult, self-centered world (is McCartney talking about his break with the Beatles?) in which he ends up saying, "Now what can be done for you?" A Bluesy Charm There's a certain shuffle, bluesy charm to "3 Legs," but it is a limited charm and, like "Ham On" and "Uncle AlbertAdmiral Halsey" (a multiple Bongsound experience that is a little like the kind of things the Beatles were fooling around with years ago) are of only passing interest. They probably would have been excluded for a first-rate Beatles album, for instance.

"Smile Away," the final song on side one, is a clean, straight-ahead, high-powered song with a chant rhythm right out of the 1955 rock 'n' roll song-book. Fun, but rather conventional. of the Country," which opens side two, is et another song about the virtues of the country life over the city life. It has a universal theme (who would choose dirty air over clean but little melodic or lyric freshness. McCartney, for example, sings: "I want a horse I want a sheep I want to get me a good night's sleep Living in a home in the country." "Monkberry Moon Delight" is an exercise in futility, but it leads into "Eat at Home," perhaps the album's most irresistible selection.

It is another rocker (there's even a trace of Buddy Holly in McCartney's voice at times) that has all the vigor and faultless construction that one finds in the Beatles' most popular work. "Long Haired Lady" starts off with a great majestic, orchestral flair but soon loses its momentum and degenerates in a 1940s show tune in which McCartney (in jest?) sings about a girl with "flashing eyes" and wonders "who'll be taking "her home after the dancing is over." Finally, "The Back Seat of My Car" uses all sorts of orchestral patches and narrative devices in what is an embarrassingly overproduced attempt to express a feeling, apparently, that was done so much simpler and better a decade ago with "Wake Up, Little Suzie." Or is there something hidden in all that production work? Anyone interested in the course of rock music and the career of the Beatles will, I suppose, have to get this album. But the rewards other than for its historical place, will be few. Sadly. BmcKner: Symphony No.

7 in hes: Symphony No. 3 Camp LJ Schuman: New England Triptych Brief: Concerto in A Minor, Op. 16; Liszt: Concerto No. 1 in Flat, Cliburit Liszt: Hungarian Khapsodies Nos. 1 and DvoraRj Scherbo Caproccicso, Op.

66; Smetana: The Bartered Bride: Overture, Polka, Furiant If r-. tW Mahler: Symphony No. 1 in Chopin: Concerto No. 1 in Minor, Op. 11 tiiuuin, naiiisi Rachmaninoff: Concertos Nos.

3, 4 Rachmaninoff, Pianist Mendelssohn: Elijah; Marsh, Verrett, Mezzo iOiumous tioyenoir UMtr. jmnf.rnu Kn 9 Mandac, Finnila, Singing City Choirs Hranms: uouoie toncerto in A Minorj LJ Heifetz, Violinist, Feuermann, Cellist rhnnin. Pnncsrtn ton 7 In Mlnnr (In i Grand Fantasy on Polish Airs, Op. 13, Rubinstein Schuoert: Symphony No. 8 Mozart: Symphony No.

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