"Ram" by Paul McCartney – ****

First released: 1971

A lot of critics massacred this one upon first release but I feel it's easily the most Beatlesque album Paul ever released, though "Flaming Pie" comes close. Paul seems to have used most of his solo career trying to make his albums not sound like Beatles albums when sounding like The Beatles is really what Paul does best. He really sounds his worst when he's trying to be the most experimental, because then it always seems to sound contrived. This is probably why I don't care for McCartney's classical material so much or his work as The Fireman. Anyway, to prove my point, if you don't think "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey" sounds like a Beatles track, you shouldn't even be reading this book. Strangely, McCartney also recorded a mostly-instrumental version of this album and belatedly released it in 1977 under the name "Thrillington".