10 Massive Drops In Quality Between Albums

For all of the fantastic songs that he wrote with the Beatles, Paul McCartney was actually becoming the least success solo star once the Fabs broke up. While George Harrison was riding high off of his double album All Things Must Pass and John was making classics like Imagine, Macca got a lot of flak for the experimentation he made on RAM, with a lot of critics not understanding what he was doing. RAM would go on to become one of his best records, but the critics back then probably had a field day once Wild Life was put out.

Looking to be part of a group again, Paul assembled a band with his wife Linda and ex Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine, and kicked things off with an album which is...let's called it primitive. Compared to the wild sounds of RAM, this feels more like a jam session that somehow found its way onto the tape, especially since two of the songs barely even have any lyrics to them. From the critics' perspective at the time, the closer Dear Friend was one of the only highlights, being an apology of sorts to John Lennon for the shots that he took at him on Too Many People from the album before.

Then again, Wild Life is by no means a terrible album. If you listen to it in the right headspace, this is a great album where you can get a glimpse at what the band was going to become. But from the sounds of these jams, we are a long way away from something like Live and Let Die or Band on the Run.