'' 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 ... " '' Billboard '' s 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 recording artist 's equivalent of camera consciousness . " To '' NME '' critic Bob Woffinden , the attempt at an album-wide concept was " a pretty half-baked one " and Hipgnosis ' cover photo was " easily the album 's strongest point " . While identifying the songs as " particularly weak lyrically " , Woffinden concluded : " It was the familiar McCartney problem . He had every essential creative requirement , except the discipline required to knead the parts into a perfect whole . " AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine views '' Back to the Egg '' as " a set of McCartney 's most undistinguished songs " that " have no spark whatsoever " , and bemoans " the weak sound of the record and Wings ' faceless performances " . Among McCartney biographers , Vincent Benitez writes that the songs are " uneven in quality " , and Howard Sounes describes the album as " a curate 's egg , good in parts , with token attempts at sounding contemporary " . Tom Doyle views " the new wave-ish rockers " like " Spin It On " as " too smoothed out to be truly edgy " and the two spoken-word tracks as " weird – and not in a good way " . Doyle considers that while '' Back to the Egg '' has its " moments of inspiration " , " There was too much material recorded during the sessions , and yet not enough of it to gel into a cohesive album . " With the album falling well short of Columbia 's and McCartney 's expectations commercially , McCartney spent the remainder of summer 1979 recording in Peasmarsh and Campbeltown , without Wings , creating his solo album '' McCartney II '' ( 1980 ) . During November and December 1979 , US TV stations aired the 31-minute '' Back to the Egg '' special , as Wings undertook a nineteen-show UK tour , the first leg of the proposed world tour . Among the songs in the setlist , they performed several tracks from '' Back to the Egg '' : " Getting Closer " , " Again and Again and Again " , " Old Siam , Sir " , " Spin It On " and " Arrow Through Me "
UK tour
Wings UK Tour 1979
Back to the Egg