As much as The Beatles are praised for their innovative and intricate production, you often sense a yearning from the band to simplify and strip songs back to basics. This seemed to be an ongoing theme of the Beatles' solo output - at least to begin with - as if sheer exhaustion from producing so much extraordinary music and navigating internal band politics had them wanting to sit with guitar or piano and just record whatever came out. And the likelihood that it would be good - certainly better than most - would be confidently high - because look at what they accomplished before. And, so, naturally, McCartney solo (and John and George) will always be compared to The Beatles collectively and found wanting. But, here, this fine album finds a relaxed Paul (perhaps relaxed sounding, as Wikipedia suggests he was feeling depressed and confused), playing and making what he likes, overdubbing on four-track, experimenting a little but pleasing nobody but himself - and that sounds like a good place to be.