This is the only McCartney album that contains a studio (not bootleg) version of "Spies Like Us." Yeah, I know the song just ain't that great, but McCartney collectors just gotta have it! Pipes of Peace is a good album overall.

Like much of McCartney's solo work, this is appealing music that hints at what could have been "if only"...If only the artist had poured more of himself into these songs...etc. Well, anyway...highlights are, as usual, brilliant. Check out "Average Person" for instance. Could be straight off Sgt. Pepper. "So Bad" is classic McCartney "Wings-style" pop, "Keep Under Cover" is a fun tune, as is the title cut. Contrast this to the crap filler non-jazz funk of "Hey Hey", or the studied blandness of "Through Our Love" and you've got the quintessential mediocre McCartney album. Paul does just enough to get by and it's still better, as in more listenable, than most of his contemporaries. But from the guy who gave the world Tug Of War just one year earlier, this is off the mark.

Now if you ask me, and folks interested in nadir and zenith often do, this here album was not Paul McCartney's zenith... but it twern't his nadir neither. This one is kind of middling with a few frilly bits and some interesting musicianship, but nothing that stands out as significant in a very significant catalogue. I guess that might could be why it managed, back in 1983, to get up to the #15 spot and stay there only for a week before slipping down and vanishing in to relative obscurity. This, as they say, was not one of his finer moments in musical history.

Despite this rather negative commencement to my review, he did manage to see three singles lifted off the album, "Say Say Say" and "Pipes of Peace" are memorable, but "So Bad" is kind of forgettable. The mid 80s were not bad for Paul, but they were not as thrilling as the mid to late 70s when he could do no wrong. Plus that, his fan base was getting older and the young folk who were plunking down pocket change for albums in the local record shops were starting to find interest elsewhere and Paul wasn't the ant's pants as far as they were concerned. It was, after all, the era when Michael Jackson was eclipsing everyone in Popdom and Paul McCartney (along with everyone else) was left in the wake.

Me and Mama care for this album like we care for all his mid 80s albums... it feels like a red headed stepchild in the family. You are obligated to care for them, but you don't take to them like your own. They come to the table to eat with you, but you always look at them and see them buck teeth and freckles and tussle of red hair and know that it ain't from your loins even though it might have taken your name. That's kind of how we feel about this here album. Junior, however, loves it because he likes to learn about Indians and Cowboys and Old West stuff and he associates Pipes of Peace with peace pipes... which he counts among the Indian lore of Hollywood Westerns.

This one is for the collectors and die hard fans. If you ain't in either of them groups, then I suggest you start your purchasing elsewhere... maybe with one of his compilation albums or with one that remained up in the charts for a longer period. That's my two cents worth... and with the weakening of the US dollar, two cents ain't worth nearly what it was worth back in 1983 when this thing came out.

This and McCartney (1970) are his best solo albums IMHO. The album (with bonus tracks) has few bad songs.

The Good: Pipes of Peace, Say Say Say, Keep Under Cover, So Bad, The Man, Sweetest Little Show, Average Person, Hey Hey & We All Stand Together are great tunes.

The man is one of the overlooked songs, also with Michael Jackson and featuring the awesome Steve Gadd on drums, it is a great pounding pop song. Sweetest Little Show & Average Person are kind of a medley as they run together and are great tunes alone or together. We All Stand Together was from the animated Rupert & The Frog Song and is a better song if you have seen the cartoon, otherwise it makes no sense whatsoever!

The Bad: The Other Me is only bad because of the ending weird vocals. Otherwise it is a great tune.

The rest is good, nothing is really bad on the album per se but he did alot better with Wings & The Beatles.