WINGS

At The Speed Of Sound (Capitol)

Speed of Sound is the nadir. With one exception, "Time To Hide," which was written and sung by exMoody Blue Denny Laine, the songs here exist in an intellectual and emotional vacuum, which McCartney calls love. To paraphrase someone: With love like this, who needs hate?!? And, furthermore, he has the balls to get defensive about it in a tune called "Silly Love Son&lt"! "You think that people would have had enough of silly love songs," he Sings, "1 look around and see it isn't so...Here 1 go again." The chorus then starts up: "1 love you/1 love you..." Admittedly, love can be a wondrous and fulfilling thing, but it can also be other things that just aren't summed up by the repetition of the words "I love you."

For one thing, love can be tortuous. McCartney must know this now. The song that follows "Silly Love Songs" is Linda's debut as a lead vocalist. She cannot sing by any stretch. And Paul had to produce it (it's also his composition). Try though he may to bury her voicelessness in reverb and a rough,' early