dispense with their surplus of stock. McCartney later reflected that for an act other than Wings, sales such as those for Back to the Egg would have been considered "very healthy". Given CBS's substantial investment in their new signing, Madinger and Easter write, the album's apparent failure led to a period of "mutual finger-pointing between Paul and Columbia Records", lasting until his contract expired in 1985. Reception Back to the Egg received predominantly negative reviews on release; author Alan Clayson writes of the album receiving "a critical mauling as vicious as that for London Town". In an especially unfavourable critique for Rolling Stone magazine, Timothy White described it as "the sorriest grab bag of dreck in recent memory" and lamented that none of the songs were "the least bit fleshed out", with the listener instead given "an irritating display of disjointed images and unfocused musical snapshots". After opining that, since 1970, "this ex-Beatle has been lending his truly prodigious talents ... to some of the laziest records in the history of rock & roll", White wrote: "Who, one felt compelled to ask, is in charge here? Back to the Egg provides the final, obvious answer: no one." Village Voice critic Robert Christgau said of McCartney and the new Wings album: "When he's on, Paulie's abundant tunefulness passes for generosity. Here he's just hoping something will stick." In Melody Maker, Ray Coleman wrote that McCartney "seems to be on a treadmill of banality". Coleman described "Rockestra Theme" and "So Glad to See You Here" as "creditable, rolling, raunchy and at least efficient, with Paul's voice at its rocking best on the last named track", but concluded: "This album gets Wings nowhere ..." Billboards reviewer gave Back to the Egg "Spotlight" status (meaning "the most outstanding new product of the week's releases and that with the greatest potential for top of the chart placement") and commented: "The music features typical McCartney fare of late with nothing here that will distinguish it as one of his classics. The arrangements, though, are interesting, encompassing a variety of styles." In a more positive assessment, for Creem magazine, Mitchell Cohen highlighted the album's second side as "a collection of McCartney performances that string together like abbey roadwork", and praised McCartney's vocals relative to his past work, writing: "all of the current tracks are terser, sung better, have less of what I suppose would be called the