My Top 1000 Songs #629: London Town

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

I realize it makes me an outlier, but I continue to insist that Wings' 1978 album London Town is among the most consistent McCartney albums, right behind Ram (which has at least belatedly come around in public appreciation) and up there with the far more widely-respected Band On The Run. Lots of great, modest pop tunes, melodic and often melancholy, infused with Denny Laine's folk leanings (albeit taken down a notch by some flat production; still waiting for the overdue remaster treatment).

The title track certainly has its flaws, most notably the kinda cheesy 70s Bar Mitzvah-sounding keyboards, but that just makes it a guilty pleasure, a song that's insinuated itself in my subconscious almost despite itself. Maybe it was a matter of timing--arriving just as I was a pre-teen pivoting from Top 40 pop into the broader array of classic rock history, and comfortably bridging that gap--or perhaps its the bounce-back in quality after the disappointing Wings at the Speed of Sound, one of my least favorite Paul records. But I've always found the song just a little bit haunting, infused with bittersweet nostalgia for a land I'd never set foot in--"Silver rain was falling down upon the dirty ground of London town" just got to me.