Paul McCartney McCartney III
Universal
Macca completes his triptych of eponymous solo albums
What exactly do we expect from Paul McCartney in his seventh decade of music making? During The Beatles’ heyday he wrote many songs that have since become indelible in the fabric of rock and pop music, leaving many other songwriters back at the starting line. Penny Lane, Yesterday and Here, There And Everywhere alone would be enough to guarantee some kind of musical immortality, but his post-Beatles projects have yielded a whole slew of classics, too.
The original album in this loose series of three, McCartney, was released in 1970, its sequel, McCartney II, in 1980, but it took a global pandemic and a rifle through some unfinished songs to produce this latest platter. The story goes that Paul found a song entitled When Winter Comes that was co-produced by Beatles producer George Martin. He decided to revisit and finish it and it takes its place as the album’s closer. Suitably motivated, he decided to carry on.
Rockers such as Lavatory Lil and Seize The Day sit alongside ballads like the acoustic The Kiss Of Venus, all of them with a distinct back to basics feel but with McCartney’s watermark of quality and originality running throughout. How does it stack up against Abbey Road or Revolver? That brings us back to our point made at the beginning of this review: is it relevant to make that kind of comparison? C’mon, it’s Macca; it’s fun and playful and, furthermore, it’s a master craftsman at work.
Standout track: The Kiss Of Venus
For fans of: The Beatles, John, George & Ringo