Footprints | Press to Play Resequenced

In the Resequenced / Alternate Album series, I take a preexisting album by Paul McCartney and create a new track listing. This is done by adding tracks that could’ve made the cut from the same time period, removing tracks, and shuffling tracks around into an order that I feel flows better.

The explanation for the track listing for this particular album is in the comments.

This is not intended to be “superior” to the original album, but just something I did for my own personal enjoyment. Think of it as a “what-if?”

[moondog]

Press to Play is probably Paul’s most disliked album. Critiqued for having no hits, desperately attempting to fit in with pop music at the time, and its characteristically 80s production (e.g. gated reverb), Press to Play was another hit for McCartney’s reputation following Pipes of Peace and Give My Regards to Broad Street.

Truthfully, I don’t dislike any of Paul’s albums so I wouldn’t blame anyone for taking my opinion with a pinch of salt, but I happen to believe Press to Play is unfairly derided. Its experimental tracks follow in the footsteps of McCartney II (retrospective reviews note that the album is a sort of precursor to the Fireman records), the lyrics display a growing maturity in Paul’s writing, and the entire album has a feeling of soothing nostalgia — the cover art definitely contributes to this, but several tracks (Good Times Coming, Move Over Busker, However Absurd, Only Love Remains) show this is where McCartney’s headspace was at the time.

I retained all of the tracks from the original album, but there are some notable variations. Paul made remixes for some of his songs from the mid-80s through the early-90s and many, myself included, think that the remixes occasionally surpass the “original” versions. I subbed the album versions of Pretty Little Head and Angry for the remixes. I also replaced the openings of Press and Talk More Talk with the openings from remix versions. I feel that even changes as minor as these makes listeners more amenable to these controversial tracks.

I added two tracks — Lindiana and Tough On A Tightrope. Lindiana dates to recordings with producer David Foster in 1984 (the same sessions that gave us We Got Married). It’s a beautiful track that unfortunately has yet to be released as of this uploading. Linda’s prominence on the cover art makes it even more of a fitting reason to include. I split the track in two. The first verse and chorus and the second chorus come as the album’s second track, while the instrumental bridge and the second verse serve as a reprise that open the album’s flipside. Tough On A Tightrope was another obvious inclusion. It’s one of Paul’s strongest compositions from the period and another great introspective lyric, a perfect fit for the record. I decided there was no good place for It’s Not True on the album, and Write Away is a clear B-side.

An issue I had with the original album was the second side’s relative weakness compared with the first. I think I addressed this by moving Only Love Remains, a very strong ballad, to the second side, along with the aforementioned changes to Talk More Talk and Angry. Move Over Busker into However Absurd is a much better transition than the album’s original placement of Angry as the penultimate track, to my ear.