In his combined review of all the former Beatles' 1970 solo releases, Geoffrey Cannon of The Guardian dismissed it as an album that had "no substance". Cannon continued: "Paul reveals himself in it as a man preoccupied with himself, and his own situation. The music is boastfully casual … He seems to believe that anything that comes into his head is worth having. And he's wrong." John Gabree of High Fidelity magazine similarly bemoaned the expectation that "we should dig his every little noise" and found the reasons for the album's failure evident in the Let It Be film, where McCartney appeared to be "the only Beatle who has stagnated as a human being", as well as "incredibly arrogant" in his treatment of his bandmates. Gabree added that "Perhaps the greatest disappointment lies in the songs, although most of them could have been saved by better performances, especially the instrumentals." Writing for Rolling Stone, Langdon Winner found the songs "distinctly second rate" relative to McCartney's best compositions as a Beatle, with only "Maybe I'm Amazed" "even com[ing] close" to matching that high standard, but he admired McCartney's vocals and added: "if one can accept the album in its own terms, McCartney stands as a very good, although not astounding, piece of work." Winner admitted to being repelled by the "tawdry propaganda" surrounding the release, however, about which he emphasised: "Remember, this is all stuff that Paul himself deliberately included [in the album's press kit], not just some idle comments he let slip to a probing journalist." The reviewer concluded: "I like McCartney very much. But I remember that the people of Troy also liked that wooden horse they wheeled through their gates until they discovered that it was hollow inside and full of hostile warriors." Retrospective assessments In the 2004 edition of The Rolling Stone Album Guide, Greg Kot deems the album "so modest it barely registers" in comparison with Lennon's Plastic Ono Band, adding: "Only the white soul of 'Maybe I'm Amazed' distinguishes otherwise unbearably slight confections such as 'Lovely Linda.'" Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic writes that McCartney possesses "an endearingly ragged, homemade quality", with "That Would Be Something", "Every Night", "Teddy Boy" and "Maybe I'm Amazed" all "full-fledged McCartney classics". Although he notes that "the throwaway nature of much of the material ... has become charming in retrospect", Erlewine adds: "Unfortunately, in retrospect it also appears as