A release by Macca deserves a slightly longer review than a Facebook post. This album has been hyped for months and the MPL/Universal-Capitol machine has done a great job with awareness.
Fourteen tracks, between 4:46 and 2:24 in length. McCartney can still write lyrics that evoke memories of our own and feelings, too. The shortest track might be my favorite of the memory lane visits–“Down South,” which describes teenage hitchhiking trips with George Harrison. Of course “Home to Us,” the first duet with Ringo ever, is destined to be a crowd pleaser and it’s one to bring a smile for sure.
It makes sense that an eighty-four-year-old would be looking back at his youth, parents, and hometown. I don’t think “Days We Left Behind,” “Salesman Saint,” and “Momma Gets By” are quite as successful as songs, but there are pleasant arrangements and moments in all of them. Particularly ‘Days’ suffers from what I think is McCartney’s inability to sing in his head voice like he used to. The songs that stay lower are more pleasant to hear.
I heard that “Lost Horizon” is the oldest-written song on the album, and it’s at least my early favorite on the album. On this one it sounds almost like New Wave and it wouldn’t have been out of place on the Tug of War album.
One of the ‘good’ things about our streaming era is that you don’t have to commit to buying this album to give it a listen. Go to your preferred streaming service and see if you agree with me about anything I wrote!
As a bonus, I watched this interview last night and it was the best one of all the “press” he’s done. It’s only about thirteen minutes. Watch “Chicken Shop Date” on YouTube for a couple of genuine laughs and see how fondly he gets in his head talking about Linda, who died in 1998.
