Band on the Run (Special Edition)

The SPECIAL EDITION includes two CDs: the original re-mastered album, and a nine track CD of extra songs, including oft-bootlegged audio tracks from the film One Hand Clapping. It also includes a DVD, with four music videos (one an album promo), "Wings in Lagos" (rare footage of a day out in Lagos during the recording sessions), "Osterley Park" (behind the scenes footage at an album cover shoot), and the TV documentary film One Hand Clapping - featuring studio performances filmed and recorded at Abbey Road in August 1974 (directed by David Litchfield). It's housed in a digipak with a twenty four page booklet. Band on the Run is the first release in the Paul McCartney Archive Collection. Personally supervised by Paul, it was digitally re-mastered at Abbey Road Studios in London.

'Neither the dippy, rustic Wild Life nor the slick AOR flourishes of Red Rose Speedway earned Paul McCartney much respect, so he made the self-consciously ambitious Band on the Run to rebuke his critics. On the surface, Band on the Run appears to be constructed as a song cycle in the vein of Abbey Road, but subsequent listens reveal that the only similarities the two albums share are simply superficial. McCartney's talent for songcraft and nuanced arrangements is in ample display throughout the record . . . a handful of the songs are excellent - the surging, inspired surrealism of "Jet" is by far one of his best solo recordings, "Bluebird" is sunny acoustic pop, and "Helen Wheels" captures McCartney rocking with abandon . . . the record is enjoyable, whether it's the minor-key "Mrs. Vandebilt" or "Let Me Roll It," a silly response to John Lennon's "How Do You Sleep?," which does make Band on the Run one of McCartney's finest solo efforts.' - All Music Guide