Paul McCartney will be known now and forever as the cute Beatle.

Not as brilliantly introspective as John, not as experimental as George, not even as goofy as Ringo, McCartney is a man that is so nice and so determined to be liked that it is almost impossible to really take him seriously.

Now that the world has hit the sad point where they don't care about the Beatles anymore -- despite the blip on the radar with the Anthology series, when was the last time you heard them on the radio? -- the question is if anybody is buying this album really expects any more than the silly love songs McCartney has been cranking out for the last two decades.

In his favor, McCartney does seem reinvigorated, despite Jeff Lynne's slightly overwrought production, on songs like the Steve Miller blues collaboration "Used To Be Bad" and the admittedly catchy single "The World Tonight."

Flaming Pie is a better album than most of McCartney's work since the mid-'70s. But, it's still quite a step down for a man who wrote "Blackbird," "When I'm Sixty-Four" and even "Band On The Run." (7/97)