Paul McCartney & Wings - Wings at the Speed of Sound (1976) {2014 Paul McCartney Archive Collection}

"... he's at full strength on the impassioned Beware My Love ... Let 'Em In and Silly Love Songs are charming ... She's My Baby sounds like an outtake from the White Album by the Beatles. B-." - Robert Christgau

At The Speed Of Sound, released in March 1976, enjoyed the same chart success as its predecessor Venus And Mars: another US number one hit album and another number one hit single with Silly Love Songs. The album went on to become McCartney's most successful American album, spending seven weeks at number one. In the UK it peaked at number two, narrowly missing out on the top spot. McCartney personally supervised all aspects of each reissue and remastering work was done at Abbey Road by the same team that worked on all the reissues as well as the Beatles catalogue. This deluxe edition includes seven unreleased demos and alternate versions, notably an early take of Beware My Love recorded with Led Zeppelin's drummer John Bonham.

If Venus and Mars had the façade of being an album by a band, At the Speed of Sound really is a full-band effort, where everybody gets a chance to sing, and even contribute a song. This, ironically, winds up as considerably less cohesive than its predecessor despite these efforts for community, not because Wings was not a band in the proper sense, but because nobody else in the band pulled as much weight as McCartney, who was resting on his laurels here. Consider this: the two hits "Let 'Em In" and "Silly Love Songs" are so lightweight that their lack of substance seems nearly defiant. They have sweet, nice melodies and are well crafted, but as songs they're nonexistent, working primarily as effervescent popcraft of their time. And that's the case for most of At the Speed of Sound, as tracks like "She's My Baby" play like the hits, only without memorable hooks. There is a bit of charm to the record, arriving in Linda McCartney's awkwardly sung "Cook of the House," the mellow "Must Do Something About It," and especially "Beware My Love," the best-written song here that effortlessly moves from sun-drenched harmonies to hard rock. Apart from the latter, these are modest pleasures buried on an album that may have been a chart-topping blockbuster, but now seems like one of McCartney's most transient works.