Album Reviews

Whatever fans might hope for on a McCartney album is here: thoughtful pop tunes, accomplished melodic invention, focused, meticulous production and comforting glints of The Beatles. More importantly, what McCartney detractors (including the Beatles fans among them) might expect is missing: namely sugary confections, shlock-rock, and corny lyrics.

Easily the best McCartney album since Flaming Pie, Chaos and Creation In The Backyard may be the best McCartney album since his first Apple solo effort but who’s making a list? Not me. You’re either a fan or you’re not, though even fans have become accustomed to disappointment with many of Sir Paul’s efforts.

Here’s one you can embrace, thanks to the strong return of Paul’s true melodic gifts, his playing most of the instruments, and his willingness to step up the microphone and become truly intimate with it—something he hasn’t been comfortable with in some time.

It’s clear marriage and starting a new life has been good for McCartney’s creative impulses, as was his choice of producer Nigel Godrich. Godrich shows great sensitivity by prodding McCartney’s sound without trying to “modernize” him to sound like Radiohead, Beck or even Travis—all of whom Godrich has produced. Aside from the impeccable and always rich and interesting production, it’s clear that Godrich’s most valuable contribution was to do for McCartney what Rick Rubin did for Johnny Cash: return him to his essence instead of allowing the artist make more frantic-sounding, throw-away studio crap.

I’m not sure to whom the opener “Fine Line” is directed, but with its VU-like piano part (played, along with all of the other instruments, by McCartney), the uptempo tune is as close to a “rock” track as you’ll find on the album—and that’s a good thing. Rock was never McCartney’s strong suit—unless paired with Lennon.

Things take a chilling, painful and dark turn on “How Kind of You,” where you feel McCartney strip away the star bullshit and let his humanity pour through. He could be singing to Heather, he could be singing to Linda or he could be addressing both at the same time and if you’re a Beatles fan, or a McCartney fan and have been so for 30 or 40 years, and even if you’ve lost the Paul connection because of his less than stellar work, this tune will lasso you in so tightly you’ll get the chills.

I remember hearing people mock McCartney for getting married again so quickly after Linda’s death, or for just getting married at all, so far removed from a human being can a living icon become in some minds. This track alone is worth the price of admission. “I won’t forget how unafraid you were/That long dark night.” Make of it what you will.

As the tunes roll on you’ll hear hints of “Blackbird,” “Eleanor Rigby,” and many other tunes, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised to find these new ones holding up without apology, for their melodic and lyrical inventiveness as well as for Paul’s vocalizing, which will finally connect after years of studio posturing.

Thirteen well-crafted, impeccably arranged and breathtakingly produced tunes, with an endless supply of instrumental surprises, mostly supplied by McCartney, will have you remembering what album production used to mean during the “golden era” of the LP.

Speaking of which, this is an album you will feel proud to put on your shelf next to your Beatle albums, sonically, musically and physically. Buy this as an MP3 download and you’re being cheated out of it all. The gatefold packaging, the choice of paper, the photography and printing are all high quality and not throw-away. Add the inserts and you really feel that you’ve been given something by Paul McCartney—that he paid attention and thought about how you would react to receiving the package.

The recordings, done at OceanWay, RAK and Air (three first rate venues), also harken back to the good old days of clarity, focus, harmonic completeness and intimacy. Whether the tracking was done analog I don’t know, but surely the mixes were digital and/or the mastering. If ProTools were involved it proves that while ProTools is no match for pure analog it doesn’t have to suck, because the sound is surprisingly rich, full and warm, though it lacks the transparency of the great recordings of days not likely to ever return.

Give this one a few plays and you’ll fall for it. You’ll reconnect with McCartney, and if you’re of a certain age, with your past, and with The Beatles in ways that may surprise you. We can only hope that the rest of McCartney’s long and winding road is as rewarding. Highly recommended on vinyl.