New Wax Wednesday

Before we all drive and/or fly off to our respective Thanksgiving festivities for the long weekend ahead, I wanted to share the full aural bounty that comprises today’s New Wax Wednesday column. This one is all about Wings, a self-titled 180g 3LP compilation of 32 tracks culled from the better-than-you-may-think output of Paul McCartney’s post-Beatles 1970s band that was released on November 7, 2025, via MPL/Capitol/UMe. The simply named Wings collection is a wonderful reminder that Sir Paul did indeed release plenty of top-drawer material after The Beatles called it quits in 1970 — and he, along with his sometimes rotating Wings collective, did indeed do so on quite a consistent basis at that.

To get a taste of what you’re in for with Wings, check out the official 3LP unboxing video below, via Macca’s official YouTube channel.

As is part-and-parcel for any Fabs-related releases these days, Wings comes in a variety of formats, including the 180g 3LP limited-edition color vinyl version I’m reviewing today (SRP: $99.99), in addition to a standard black vinyl 3LP set ($79.99) and an abbreviated, 12-track 180g 1LP version ($29.99) intended for, to quote the official press materials, “those embarking on their first flights with Wings and/or just beginning a deeper dive into this stage of Paul’s unparalleled career.” Yes, “unparalleled” is their own hype-y word there, but it’s hard to fathom applying it to anyone else, given what McCartney’s been doing for going on, gulp, seven decades of creative output. (“Way beyond compare” might actually be the better phrase there — just saying.)

The Wings SRPs are fairly standard — and relatively affordable, imo — for these kinds of collections. The black vinyl 3LP version can be obtained via Music Direct here, and/or via the MD link graphic that’s ahead of the tracklisting section below. The limited-edition color-vinyl edition (as of this posting, out of stock at MD) is available at Paul’s official site store here. If you’re a Macca completist like yours truly, physical digital options — 1BD ($26.98), 2CD ($24.98), and 1CD ($13.98) — are all also available in Paul’s store.

More stats now. Wings was personally curated by Sir Paul himself, so if you have any complaints along the lines of, “Why, why, why didn’t he include [fill in the name of your favorite Wings track or tracks here]? What an outrage, I tell you,” feel free to direct those messages elsewhere. Given the “Made in Germany” sticker on the back cover, we can readily conclude this collection was pressed at Optimal, which is where the balance of Fabs-related vinyl releases are pressed these days. It also appears none of these Wings mixes were done in 2025 — parenthetical information pinpoints the use of remasters from 2010, 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2022 — but I’m cool with that (for now).

The three color vinyl LPs in my copy of Wings — clear (LP1), green (LP2), and pink (LP3) — were all properly centered, dead quiet, and sans any notable pops or clicks save one or two at the outsets of a pair of sides before any music was touched by the needle. All three color LPs are (thankfully!) housed in black-framed, plastic-lined audiophile-grade inner sleeves. The labels on each LP replicate the black Capitol-logo style seen on a number of that label’s ’70s releases. (Most Wings LPs of the era, however, bore custom label art, with only May 1975’s Venus and Mars sporting a similar label on its earliest pressings.)

The softbound 32-page booklet includes an introduction from Paul along with scores of photographs, artwork, paintings, trivia, and information about the band. The artwork for Wings was overseen “alongside Paul” (their words) by Aubrey “Po” Powell of Hipgnosis — the iconic design studio that worked with Paul for seven Wings albums, including December 1973’s Band on the Run, the aforementioned Venus and Mars from May 1975, December 1976’s Wings Over America, and November 1978’s Wings Greatest.

The LP-size booklet also features extensive album-by-album notes on the artwork by Po, with additional editorial content from Pete Paphides. It also features original artwork by Humphrey Ocean, who first worked with Wings on some of the artwork for March 1976’s Wings at the Speed of Sound before being invited by Paul and Linda McCartney to join Wings on tour in 1976 as their artist in residence, in turn rendering many way-cool, behind-the-scenes sketches of the band. It’s a beautiful and informative booklet, to be sure, even though the pink/green combo on the booklet’s cover and how that color scheme is also used to frame some, though not all, of the other pages within isn’t my personal favorite choice.

The box’s sturdy outer shell features the band-and-box name in die-cut form across the middle of the front — and so far, I’m happy to report, none of the letter tines have bent or broken on my copy. (The points of the W and G are the most vulnerable to this possible issue, but so far, so good.) This box is also a left-loader — my semi-educated guess as to why that’s the case is because Sir Paul is left-handed — but it should shelve quite nicely alongside other Macca/Fabs box sets of similar size in your collection, with the band-name/box-name spine showing and easily identifiable.

Since I was privileged enough to see one of the final shows of Macca’s late-2025 leg of his extensive Got Back tour at TD Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, this past Friday — November 21, 2025, the same day the 180g 12LP Beatles Anthology collection was released, I should add (Footnote 1) — I have an even better appreciation of all the Wings songs from the box set he performed that night, which, by my count and that of the setlist itself, included eight of them.

I was situated on the arena floor in the left-center front section (a.k.a. FLC), Row 12, Seat 5, so I could see and hear everything from there pretty much unimpeded. Macca’s show was the inaugural event at this newly renovated Ontario arena, and I have a feeling I’ll be returning to TD Coliseum for a number of shows in the future, given how good the acoustics were from my floor seat — or rather, my floor stand, since I rarely sat during the full, 168-minute set. Yes, the balance of The Beatles tracks Paul and his ace band (all together now for 23 years and counting!) played were magical and mystical, and they gave off all the right “feels,” as these songs continue to connect all age groups in a shared, “leave behind a tragic world” vibe seemingly all-too-rare outside concerts of this nature. I was also beyond pleased they included the “last” Beatles track, “Now and Then” (Setlist Track 19) in the performance mix. The 76-date, multi-year Got Back tour just wrapped up in Chicago last night, November 25, 2025, so here’s hoping an official multidisc tour box set appears in 2026 so everyone can share in the joy.

Here are my aural impressions of the songs in the Wings box that I also heard/saw at the Hamilton show, both from a vinyl perspective and a concert-review perspective as warranted. The synth intro that slinks subtly across the stereo field on “Band on the Run” (LP1, Side 1, Track 1; Setlist Track 25), and the acoustic guitar break that sums in the center are about as clear as I’ve ever heard them. “Letting Go” (LP1, Side 1, Track 4; Setlist Track 5) boasts some gnarly guitar and low-end interplay — replete with horns — with the left-channel guitar lower in the soundfield than the more angular, higher-up right-channel guitar responses. One of my favorite performances of the night, “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five” (LP1, Side 1, Track 5; Setlist Track 11), found Paul on the piano (as seen above) and singing in what I would characterize as his Vaudevillian gangsta vocce — and this song’s appearance at the end of the opening side of the box’s first LP is a barnburner. The right-channel shaker, two rounds of heavenly harmonies and organ fills, “Cold Turkey”-esque howling, orchestral buildup, and the callback “Band on the Run” reprise outro continue to deliver the goods.

To say “Live and Let Die” (LP1, Side 2, Track 1; Setlist Track 28) is an explosive track is an obvious understatement — and the, shall we say, full-on heat generated ahead of each chorus during the pyrotechnic-blast segments of the (scream it with me now) rock show could be felt on my face. (As Paul stepped down from his piano perch to return to centerstage, he pointed to his ears and mouthed “Too loud?” more than once, but my trusty high-grade earplugs held firm.) On vinyl, George Martin’s orchestral arrangement remains a marvel, and you can discern certain instrumental elements (xylophone, horns) appearing in different locales in the mix, both pre-bridge and post-bridge. (“You know you did” times three, indeed.) I always felt “Die” could have gone on for more than its just-over-3-minute length, but I’ll take what I can get.

“Let ’Em In” (LP2, Side 3, Track 1; Setlist Track 9) has always been a weird bird, so to speak, but I still dig it — especially the military drums, swinging horns, flutes, and false fadeout. Quick quiz: Are you able to figure out all the name references for who’s specifically allowed across the threshold? (I know “Brother Michael” actually refers to Paul’s younger brother, but let me have that one, willya?) I also wonder if Paul would have loved to have had Ray Charles cover this one. And then we get “Jet” (LP2, Side 3, Track 3; Setlist Track 21), a kissing cousin to “Junior’s Farm” (which was not played at the show, but is included in the box set on LP1, Side 2, Track 3) that is a love letter to one of Paul’s Labrador Retrievers, and it’s essentially all sinew and muscle. (I still have my original, well-played 45 of this one too.) The insistent cymbal hits and Linda’s Moog solo still hold up, and I remain intrigued by Paul’s choice to add an “s” sound after the “t” at the end of two of his three extended “and Jet” phrases — something he did not do live, btw.

“Let Me Roll It” (LP3, Side 5, Track 5; Setlist Track 7) might be my favorite Wings track of ’em all, a three-person tour de force with aggressive guitar initially way out front in the mix, along with great vocal echo and chorus harmonies throughout — plus, the double bass-note stutter step following the first riff after each chorus is just, well, a classic Macca choice. “Roll It” was also an early setlist highlight in Hamilton that featured Paul absolutely shredding a furious postscript guitar run through an instrumental take on The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Foxey Lady,” something I’ve seen him do before and continue to love hearing. (Not only that, but his after-song, “how we all learned about Jimi in London” story is always entertaining.)

The international No. 1 hit “Mull of Kintyre” (LP3, Side 5, Track 6; Setlist Track 31) wasn’t played anywhere else on the Got Back tour, and we were lucky enough to get it in Hamilton — replete with Ontario’s fabulous Paris Port Dover Pipe Band backing up the band onstage. As best I can tell, Sir Paul has never performed this song in the neighboring United States, and its most recent performance before this one was back in 2017 in Australia. Regardless, it was a magical moment in the encore to hear (and see) live bagpipes and drums add that extra local flavoring to a special rendering of Paul’s love of a certain southwest Scottish peninsula that remains close to his heart. (He’s also owned a farm there since 1966, I believe, and I’m reasonably sure some of the onscreen footage appearing throughout the show was shot there across the years.)

I could prattle on and on, I suppose, but the bottom line here is, Wings well delivers on giving us more than just a fine acquired taste of a decade’s worth of excellent pop/rock music that sometimes gets overshadowed by Paul’s Beatles oeuvre and solo-artist endeavors. My ratings for the Wings box set is a cumulative 8.5 for the Music (some tracks come in at 9, and others are 9.5), and the Sound also garners an 8.5. What’s wrong with that, I’d like to know. . . .

And with that final Macca-inspired kicker, let me now close the day by bidding one and all a happy, safe, and healthy Thanksgiving Weekend ahead — and here’s to an amazing Record Store Day 2025 experience too, if you, like me, plan to venture out to your favorite indie record shop(s) to partake in RSD on Friday!

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Author bio: Mike Mettler is the editor of Analog Planet in addition to being the music editor of our sister site Sound & Vision, and he’s also a contributing music editor to one of our other sister sites, Stereophile, in addition to being the regular Vinyl Icons column scribe for Hi-Fi News. Plus, he’s quite partial to vintage 1967 Mustang fastbacks, but that’s yet another story for a different time and place.

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Footnote 1: If you want even more Beatles-related coverage, we gotcha covered!

Go here for our deep-dive combo review of The Beatles’ massive 180g 12LP Anthology Collection.

Go here for my recent New Wax Wednesday review of Ringo Starr’s first four solo LPs that were reissued late last month.

Go here for our look at John & Yoko’s Power to the People 4LP box set.

Finally, go here over on our sister site Sound & Vision for my mondo Beatles box set review, which includes extended coverage of Anthology Collection and other, solo releases from all four members of The Beatles, some of them not on vinyl.

WINGS
WINGS
180g 3LP (MPL/Capitol/UMe)

LP1, Side 1
1. Band On The Run
2. Hi, Hi, Hi
3. Silly Love Songs
4. Letting Go
5. Nineteen Hundred And Eighty Five

LP1, Side 2
1. Live And Let Die
2. Mamunia
3. Junior’s Farm
4. Helen Wheels
5. Some People Never Know

LP2, Side 3
1. Let ’Em In
2. Get On The Right Thing
3. Jet
4. My Love
5. Call Me Back Again

LP2, Side 4
1. Getting Closer
2. Listen To What The Man Said
3. I’ve Had Enough
4. Love Is Strange
5. London Town
6. Arrow Through Me

LP3, Side 5
1. Venus And Mars / Rock Show
2. She’s My Baby
3. Bluebird
4. Deliver Your Children
5. Let Me Roll It
6. Mull Of Kintyre

LP3, Side 6
1. Wild Life
2. C Moon
3. With A Little Luck
4. Soily (One Hand Clapping Sessions)
5. Goodnight Tonight