McCartney Times

Wings At The Speed of Sound is the moment Paul McCartney felt comfortable enough with his bandmates to let them play their own material, which, admittedly, only lasted for one solitary album before the group downsized one more time for the more pastoral sounding London Town. It’s also an example of Wings as a rock band, tailoring the material to meet the demands of a 1970s stadium gig.

Indeed, the startling thing about ‘Let ‘Em In’ is that the band throw themselves into the work with an angular, visceral backbeat, lacing the work with meta-contextual elements that push the tune along. There’s nary a guitar heard on the track, but the drums push the tune along, making it as easy to jive to as hum along with.

The album was recorded quickly, and although the song-craft lacks the dizzying spontaneity of Band On The Run, or the diverse treasures heard on Venus and Mars, Speed of Sound is nonetheless a tidy portrait of a band in the middle of creative renaissance, enjoying the treasures of the work that was destined for the live-stage. As it stands, although McCartney only wrote half the album, the finished result is definitely infectious and decidedly hummable.

Source: McCartney trusts Wings with ‘Speed of Sound’