Release
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 69/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Entertainment Weekly | A− |
| The Guardian | |
| Los Angeles Times | |
| The Observer | |
| Pitchfork Media | (6.4/10) |
| PopMatters | (5/10) |
| Robert Christgau | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| BBC | Favorable |
The album was his first for Starbucks' Hear Music record label, after previously having a 45-year-old relationship with Capitol/EMI. The contract of the deal ended a few months prior to the release of the album, after McCartney found out that EMI were going to take 6 months to set up a promotional strategy for the album. McCartney was the first artist to sign to Hear Music. The album was released on 4 June 2007 in the UK, and a day later on the 5th in the US, and with a vinyl edition later in the month on 25 June. In the US, Memory Almost Full debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 with about 161,000 copies sold within the first week, making it McCartney's highest-charting album there since 1997's Flaming Pie, 47% of sales from the opening week were from Starbucks coffee shops, which were the best by any album in the history of Starbucks. While it was announced that copies of the album sold in the Starbucks coffee shops in the UK would not be counted by the Official UK Charts, because they are not registered in the copies counting system, Memory Almost Full, however, still managed to hit number 5 on the UK Album Charts. The album was also peaked at number 1 on Billboard Internet Sales Chart, and number 3 on Billboard Top Internet Albums Downloads.
It was also McCartney's first album to be available as a digital download. Promotion for the album came in several forms, such as a worldwide listening party at over 10,000 Starbucks stores on the day of the album's US release, with an approximation of 6 million people hearing the album. At 10 of the Starbucks stores, fans contributed in a video tribute, that aired on the internet on 18 June 2007. Other promotions included a limited edition Paul McCartney Starbucks card, similar to what they had done for Ray Charles's Genius Loves Company, the Starbucks-owned satellite radio station XM Channel made a program about McCartney and the album, released one track prior to the album on iTunes, performed at iTunes Festival: London, and playing free shows. It was ranked at number 90 on the top-100 of the Billboard Year-end chart, and number 177 on the UK year-end chart. The album won awards for the Best PR Campaign award at the Music Week Awards ceremony, and the Online/Digital Campaign award by New Media Age. The album reportedly sold 105,000 copies in his homeland until it was given away the standard version of the CD in a unique slip-case as part of a promotion with British newspaper The Mail on Sunday for free,with the 18 May 2008 edition.
Read more about this topic: Only Mama Knows
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