After a delivery from The Office‘s Mackenzie Crook, a few strums of Macca’s magic mando summons the ghost of Portman past, which is quite the parlor trick. A relatively tame Michel Gondry lends his charms to the first vid from Macca’s Memory Almost Full, with apparitions jumping on beds, twirling to the tune’s carefree stomp, and playing 2-D volleyball off the library wall. But seeing Paul smile his way through the clip closing ghost-rave is best of all.
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That’s not 2D-volleyball, that’s pong.
I think Gondry used the same treatment for the White Stripe’s “Dead Leaves and the Dirty Ground” video. The difference being that the superimposed images are of Jack and Meg instead of ghosts. Oh, and no Natalie Portman cameos either!
What a useless song, and even more useless video.
I guess Paul is trying to tell us that everybody’s going to dance around tonight. Deep.
Man, I hope your high horse dies Steve.
Let’s not treat the horse so badly, just the rider! The album takes a few plays to grow on you but has some great tracks. This is one of them.
Keep on Maccing.
Gondry needs to introduce McCartney to Jon Brion.
That delivery man is Gareth Kennen from the Brittish “Office”!
This is a simple, fun ditty like “All Together Now” from the Beatles day, and for what it is it is good. Haters like Steve will hear the song and say “Oh, Paul sucks. He’s so lightweight,” but never listen to the rest of the album which has lots of harder hitting more complex stuff. The hard rocker “Only Mama Knows” is my favorite.
I bet Stevie listens to “post-rock” lot of shitty hip hop.
The mandolin intro was promising but the vocal melody didn’t do much for me. Still, not bad, Paul. You can rest on your laurels for eternity, for all I care. Video was fine.
yeah, i’m a bit confused as to why McCartney chose this song as a lead single. there are some great tunes on Memory Almost Full and Dance Tonight isn’t really one of them.
Cheese-tastic!
Good, fun, simple tune. As usual, the bass lines are incredible.
And Mackenzie Crook is a wonderful actor, just as the whole cast from The Office :)
Ah, yes, let’s all attack the person who dares speak badly of McCartney! What a fun game!
Guys, the song is awful, admit it.
That said, I said nothing about Paul being a “lightweight”, nor did I say anything about the rest of the album. Of course I plan on listening to it – the man’s a legend and, no matter how bad a song this is, the album is deserving of at least one listen.
I just find it funny that the pre-release buzz has been that Paul wanted this album to be “up there with his best, including the Beatles” (I’m paraphrasing), and THIS is the song he chooses as a lead single?
So attack if you must, but do me a favor and don’t put words in my mouth, or, even worse, make me out as a post-rock fan.
McCartney is probably the greatest melodist of the past century. The hook is simple, which makes it catchy, which makes it a good lead single if you’re a guy who likes to sell records.
Long live Macca.
strangely reminiscent of the video for, “i’ve got my mind set on you” by george harrison. something about his slouched posture in the library. very light and warm. cozy almost.
Apologies, Steve. I don’t think it’s great, but it’s not the worst thing he’s ever done. I honestly liked the mandolin bit. Maybe I’ll steal it.
Anyway, sorry for assuming too much about your character and tastes. Your comments struck me in a way that made me think you were one of those folks who’s smart enough to be snarky but not smart enough to carry interesting opinions of their own, which describes an awful lot of indie dudes. But I misjudged thee, and I am sorry.(I’m not being sarcastic)
No worries… hell, I grew up with my parents playing the Beatles constantly, and I absolutely love both the band and a lot of Paul’s solo stuff. I really want this album to be great. This song doesn’t give me high hopes, but we’ll have to wait and see.
The song is uh.. not his best.. but the video’s a lot of fun.
Steve- that’s funny, because in spite of the fact that I was sorta kinda defending him, I grew up with the Beatles as well and I definitely wasn’t expecting or even caring that much if this was good- although a GENUINELY great new Paul song would be, well, a majorly happy suprise, I don’t he’s tried too hard for a long time. My personal fav (and probably the common answer here) solo Paul albums are Ram and Band On The Run.
One thing that should be pointed out about Paul is that he’s rarely fully succumbed to whatever the current production standards and styles are.
Any word on if Nigel Godrich is involved with this new album or not? IMO, his involvement with “Chaos and Creation” made it one of Paul’s strongest albums in years.
This new song… it’s a shame it’s so lyrically drab, because the tune itself is quite catchy.
i’m so glad someone else mentioned the harrison video. as soon as he sat in the chair, i was like…this is a litle familiar. it’s still cool.
Okay, let me establish that I’m not the earlier Steve (fan of John Mayer’s standup = me, this guy /= me). Anyway, I haven’t watched the video yet (jumping to save my rep), but I was very happy with “Ever Present Past” when I had a chance to hear it.
Um… yeah. That’s pretty poor from a lyrical standpoint. I agree with the Harrison references, even down to the intentionally simplistic song. It’s a easy trifle of a singalong, with a video of the singer in a “crazy room”.
They shoulda had George Harrison’s ghost dancing around too. That woulda been funny. And John too. And maybe Danzig.
Fine song and vid. Reminds me of the mid 80s videos and songs. I like it.
Not a bad song. It may be simple in concept, but people need uplifting songs.
Paul sucks, but this song is listenable.
GARETH KEENAN INVESTIGATES!
Is Macca saying “Dance Tonight” because his ex-wife can’t?
Lyrically poor, nice tune though, if that’s your bag.
hey guys……
anyone who says the song is bad…well you are simply an idiot! the song is not bad…i have always wondered why people are so critical of mccartneys music all the time? its a nice song..anyways alot of people will be surprised when they hear the entire cd. it is quite actually good…honestly his song “you are sunshine” i beleive is the title..it is the best song on the cd..i wished he would have released it first..it is a catchy pop top 40 song all the way! i have heard the entire cd and that song alone i would buy it for. “vintage clothes” great song! “only mama knows” sounds alot like “juniors farm” “mister bellamy” it is a quite good song! beleive it is worth buying! i will be be at starbucks to get a copy on june 5th. and to you mccartney haters…for gods sake get a life..what do you expect, the man is human what do you want? gold to pop out of his music when he writes and records! the songs that mccartney releases if u2 would release these same songs everybody would be like “oh! awesome!” “great band!” the songs he puts out, if released 30-40 years ago would be classics in todays world! i just don’t understand what paul has to do to get the credit for beeing by far one of the greatest musicians of all time! it was his creations the the beatles became what they were! look at mccartneys music from after the beatles? hit after hit after hit..even the stuff he wrote that took a critical beating was still by far better than anything thats out their today! hands down! now look at lennon after the beatles far less hits, struggled to the point he about gave up on his music career…until the end. paul mccartney was and will always be the beatles strongest link! it is about time people start to simply accept it! great record paul with “memory almost full” to think it was a throw away album to begin with…your throw away stuff puts to shame the music of today!
After not hearing any Paul or Beatles songs (save for one)in the last 5 years, this one struck me as typical McCartney-esque: bright, bouncy, maybe could-be a hit. Two nights ago I was playing an old cassette (I have hundreds with nothing written on the labels) and on that cassette there was one Beatles song “I’ll Be Back,” which caused a 14-year old in the room to look away from her MySpace page to inquire “what is that… I like it…” Also pls check out my post
http://dave-lucas.blogspot.com/2007/06/beatles-in-newsday.html
for all the folks out there bashing Paul’s talents….your ears have to be closed. If you “lift” your ears up-you might understand what the artist is articulating to your ears…but only if the are open..
Cheers
I love everything Paul has ever sang or did he just keeps amazing me. I have a huge tattoo on my back of the beatles that has won many awards I would love to have paul just see it.
TOtally Hot! You go Paul!
Totally Hot! You go Paul!
TOtally Hot! You go Paul!
love the beatles and much solo work thereafter. sorry, hang it up, this shit sucks.
I reckon dance tonight is brilliant great fun song
I bought the album and found it pretty uneven and the songs didn’t link together at all. But it did seem to have some personal information regarding his recent marriage breakup with his take on it. It also seemed to be telling hidden secrets of his life as a musician and person including a reference to woodstock which made him sound like one of us. It almost breaks open a few aspect of his secret life, like a guy talking to an old high school chum 35 years later about current personal bread and butter issues. Too often Paul seems to inhabit this other aristocratic plane, distant, and not really in touch with the people. Its usually way too hard to tell whatever he is singing about. Then othertimes its so simple spoon fed that its unbelieveable. He doesn’t come across as a deep thinker or a deep feeler, but there must be more to him as he is intelligent in his interviews, though in blithely practical ways. That means he really does depend on his melodies providing evnough cache that combined with his Beatles fame sell his albums. There are some production values and a stylistic individuality that provides some freshness I haven’t heard in a long time from him. I wondered if this was his money maker album to finance his marriage breakup or whether it might be his last self memorium from some of his lyrics. He’s a hidden guy, not very available, though benign. I just wish he would get behind some causes and not get so hopelessly lost in the commercialism of it all.