Electric Arguments is the third and final studio album by The Fireman, released in 2008 through MPL in conjunction with One Little Indian Records in the UK and ATO Records in the US. The Fireman is an alias for collaborations between Paul McCartney and Youth, and their first release after The Reveal of The Fireman's identity. Where the first Fireman album is an ambient work featuring McCartney samples and the second features some live-in-studio instrumental work, Electric Arguments is a full song-oriented collaboration, essentially an electronic rock album.
The album was a moderate commercial success, topping the independent release charts and reaching the lower reaches of the mainstream album charts. It also drew strong reviews, with many critics musing that McCartney seems to work best behind a thinly-veiled pseudonym.
Tracklist:
- "Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight" (4:55)
- "Two Magpies" (2:12)
- "Sing The Changes" (3:44)
- "Travelling Light" (5:06)
- "Highway" (4:17)
- "Light From Your Lighthouse" (2:31)
- "Sun Is Shining" (5:12)
- "Dance 'Til We're High" (3:37)
- "Lifelong Passion" (4:49)
- "Is This Love?" (5:52)
- "Lovers In A Dream" (5:22)
- "Universal Here, Everlasting Now" (5:05)
- "Don't Stop Running" (5:54)
- "Road Trip" (2:36)
Don't Stop Troping:
- Badass Boast: "Nothing Too Much Just Out Of Sight" ends with a curiously Lennon-like example, almost certainly aimed at Paul's then-wife Heather Mills.The last thing you did was try to betray me...
- Call-Back: "Travelling Light" seems to be a Sequel Song to "Bluebird" from Band On The Run, and any McCartney album with a Hidden Track can't help but recall Abbey Road. The production on "Sing The Changes" is also modelled after Youth's past work with U2.
- Epic Rocking: Six of the songs are over five minutes.
- Genre Roulette: Blues rock, post-punk, country, folk, ambient, and all-out arena pop all feature on the album.
- Limited Lyrics Song: "Don't Stop Running
", "Lovers In A Dream", and "Everlasting Here, Universal Now". - Shout-Out: The album title comes from Allen Ginsburg's poem "Kansas City To St. Louis".
- Silly Love Songs: Who's surprised? "Dance 'Til We're High", "Lifelong Passion", and "Is This Love?" all qualify.
- Song Style Shift: "Everlasting Here, Universal Now" flips from ambient music to electronic rock at the halfway mark before dropping into a piano coda.
- Textless Album Cover: Almost - it's not obvious, but some text can be made out. Some store copies had a more distinguishing label on the cover.
