After the breakup,
Beatles fans expected major statements from the three chief songwriters in the Fab Four.
John and
George fulfilled those expectations --
Lennon with his lacerating, confessional John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band,
Harrison with his triple-LP
All Things Must Pass -- but
Paul McCartney certainly didn't, turning toward the modest charms of
McCartney, and then crediting his wife
Linda as a full-fledged collaborator on its 1971 follow-up,
Ram. Where
McCartney was homemade, sounding deliberately ragged in parts,
Ram had a fuller production yet retained that ramshackle feel, sounding as if it were recorded in a shack out back, not far from the farm where the cover photo of
Paul holding the ram by the horns was taken. It's filled with songs that feel tossed off, filled with songs that are cheerfully, incessantly melodic; it turns the monumental symphonic sweep of
Abbey Road into a cheeky slice of whimsy on the two-part suite "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey." All this made
Ram an object of scorn and derision upon its release (and for years afterward, in fact), but in retrospect it looks like nothing so much as the first indie pop album, a record that celebrates small pleasures with big melodies, a record that's guileless and unembarrassed to be cutesy. But
McCartney never was quite the sap of his reputation, and even here, on possibly his most precious record, there's some ripping rock & roll in the mock-apocalyptic goof "Monkberry Moon Delight," the joyfully noisy "Smile Away," where his feet can be smelled a mile away, and "Eat at Home," a rollicking, winking sex song. All three of these are songs filled with good humor, and their foundation in old-time rock & roll makes it easy to overlook how inventive these productions are, but on the more obviously tuneful and gentle numbers -- the ones that are more quintessentially
McCartney-esque -- it's plain to see how imaginative and gorgeous the arrangements are, especially on the sad, soaring finale, "Back Seat of My Car," but even on its humble opposite, the sweet "Heart of the Country." These songs may not be self-styled major statements, but they are endearing and enduring, as is
Ram itself, which seems like a more unique, exquisite pleasure with each passing year. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine