Flowers in the Dirt

Enlivened and challenged by his songwriting collaboration with Elvis Costello, who cowrote three songs here, McCartney made one of his best albums of the 1980s with Flowers in the Dirt. The Costello tracks, "My Brave Face," "You Want Her, Too," and "That Day Is Done," are complex and acerbic, qualities rarely applied to songs penned by McCartney alone. Yet Sir Paul rises to the occasion on "Put It There," a touching remembrance of his father, and some of his best pop-rockers in a while, such as "This One," "Figure of Eight," and "Rough Ride." --Daniel Durchholz