Music

The Boys of Dungeon Lane by Paul McCartney (2026)

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.

Spirited (AppleTV, 2022)

Watched this last night, and it was perfectly suited for a ‘heartwarming’ Christmas movie. Not a huge fan of Will Ferrell, and Ryan Reynolds is mostly tolerable because he makes fun of himself.

You can’t stop watching yet another take on A Christmas Carol, though, can you? Even one that is a musical with only one good singer who doesn’t get much to do (for the record, the actress playing the Ghost of Christmas Past).

I will say the production numbers are really well done, even if the movie could have been a very enjoyable 90 minutes instead of bloated past two hours.

I might watch this again if it were on, but I’m not going to seek it out. The best part of it was watching it with family.

Spinal Tap II: The End Continues (HBOMax, 2025)

While this had been on my radar as going to be released at the end of 2025, the tragic event of the murders of Rob and Michele Reiner made me watch this “mockumentary” followup in a very different light.

While I am a fan of the original movie, I do not know all of the songs and the key lines by heart. The setup of the sequel is that the band needs to reunite for one more show. Rob Reiner “Marty” is back as the director/interviewer.

Sadly, I think the movie suffers from having to follow in its own footsteps. There are some good bits with some “special guests” and the best thing is that there is a definite story arc in the 90 minutes.

In hindsight, it was bittersweet to see Rob Reiner do a bit of slapstick.

I have to shout out the newcomer Valerie Franco as Tap’s latest drummer. This seems particularly relevant now that Rush has tapped a new drummer; I think once again Spinal Tap was ahead of the curve!

This movie won’t resonate like the first one did, but it is going to serve as the standing stone of Rob Reiner’s last film, and it does that honorably, and with some honest laughs along the way.