Weekend reading

Have a look at this detailed (and at times rhapsodic) analysis of Ram, Paul and Linda's album from 1971. Mervyn Dendy's enthusiasm for Ram ("one of the 20 best albums of all time") may even outstrip Paul's. Top twenty?

Excerpt:
It deserved its success: Ram, in my opinion, is Paul McCartney’s best album, being even better than Band on the Run that was to follow two and a half years later. Never on any post-Beatles album have Paul’s incredible melodic abilities been more seamlessly combined with his extraordinary talent as a rocker than on Ram. The album today sounds as fresh and appealing as it did forty years ago, every song is crammed with musical hooks, there is not a single wasted track, Paul’s singing has seldom been more engaging, and the playing is terrific. If ever Paul McCartney has given the world a pop masterpiece after the dissolution of the Beatles – and he has given the world several, then Ram is it. I have no hesitation in giving the album the highest rating possible on any grading system, and in recommending it as one of the 20 best albums of all time. I regard only George Harrison’s All Things Must Pass and John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band as being better solo Beatle albums, and then only because of their more profound subject matter. Ram, however, is more fun to listen to than those two albums, and just the record to play if you need cheering up.