PAUL McCartney is an undoubted genius. Almost flawless with The Beatles, he also produced many charming solo albums. Sadly 1971’s Ram is far from being one of them. In fact, it is a rather plodding work with very few interesting songs.

On this remastered reissue, tunes like Too Many People and Heart Of The Country caught my ear, but I was shocked at how lifeless this album was.

In fact, it prompted me to re-evaluate the run of albums Macca made in the post-Beatles era. I realised there’s a lot of lukewarm material on McCartney, Ram, Wild Life and Red Rose Speedway and he only really kicks back into full gear on 1973’s brilliant Band On The Run.

Getting back to Ram, which was the only album co-credited to Paul and Linda McCartney, it really does feel like Paul took a lot of half-baked ideas and plonked them down on record before he had time to work his usual magic.

There’s more than a hint of digs at his former bandmates on the opening pair of songs (Too Many People and 3 Legs), but it really is a bit shocking how forgettable a set of songs these are.

Not even the presence of a bonus disc (unreleased material, B-sides) helps to improve matters much, although it’s quite telling that Another Day, a non-album single recorded around the same time, is the best song on here. Sad to say, this is not the man at his best.