An honest account of being a McCartney fan, even if I disagree with Sean Nelson's designation of great versus good versus shit Macca albums (I love the 1986 curiosity Press To Play inordinately). I'm not a fan, but of all the records to which I've listened since May, Memory Almost Full shows up in my Heavy Rotation folder on my iPod most often -- a fact that, considering my record of vilifing friends who followed the artiste's career more devotedly than I have, appalls me. Nelson's half right. It's more than "almost good," more on the side of "really good," despite the lengths to which Starbucks has gone in recent weeks to blasting it (I hate their coffee, love their toffee bars). It is, as Nelson points out, angry and fun, and "feels contemporary without being dressed up in fashionable sounds." Whether McCartney's career can be shown to have an "arc" or whatever other assumption one makes about artists with more consistent careers is something I'll leave to his acolytes, but I'm not erasing "House of Wax," "That Was Me," or "Ever Present Past" any time soon.