The Fireman is a collaborative project between former Beatle Paul McCartney and music producer Youth. Their music mostly consists of ambient techno, but on later releases they've also dabbled in rock, psychedelic, folk and other genres.
In 1993, they released Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest, featuring light-hearted techno remixes of the Off the Ground sessions and two Miniscule Rocking tracks from Back to the Egg, to mixed reviews. Most critics and fans criticized the album for its tracks sounding too much like each other. In 1998, they released the New Sound Album Rushes, featuring more of a rockish flavor and more variety to its sound. 2008 saw their comeback Electric Arguments, which was even more of a New Sound Album than Rushes, introducing a Genre Roulette sound and vocals from McCartney. The result earned critical acclaim and a fair amount of popularity.
The Fireman Discography
- Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest (1993)
- Rushes (1998)
- Electric Arguments (2008)
Tropes related to The Fireman
- Anonymous Band: They sort of started out as one - Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest was released with little fanfare and no credits mentioning either member's names, and the record label had to confirm the rumors that Paul McCartney was involved.
- Epic Rocking: All the songs on Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest, "Palo Verde", "Auraveda", "Fluid", "Appletree Cinnabar Amber", "7 a.m.", "Don't Stop Running" (though this is thanks to a Hidden Track).
- Genre Roulette: On Electric Arguments, there's a lot of rock songs, as well as some ambient techno and some psychedelic songs.
- Instrumentals: A LOT of their songs.
- Lead Bassist: Consisting only of two bassists, The Fireman qualifies by default.
- Magpies as Portents: "Two Magpies", which also states the title of the relevant nursery rhyme (One for Sorrow, Two for Joy).
- Minimalistic Cover Art: Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest is just a red background with "strawberr" at the top right corner.
- New Sound Album: Strawberries Oceans Ships Forest was ambient techno, Rushes had some guitars, Electric Arguments had a lot of rock songs on it.
- Textless Album Cover: Electric Arguments seems to be one at first.....but flipping the album so the left side faces down reveals the group name, the members of the group and the album title.
