McCartney sees new album as travelogue

Vinyl enjoys revival

NEW YORK, June 21, (Agencies): Paul McCartney on Wednesday announced his first album in five years, “Egypt Station,” which he described as a kind of musical travelogue with each song exploring a new area.

The Beatles legend said that “Egypt Station” would come out on September 7 and released two initial tracks, a peppy pop song called “Come on to Me” and the ballad “I Don’t Know.”

The album appears to have little explicit connection to Egypt, with McCartney saying that he took a liking to the turn of phrase “Egypt Station,” the title of one of the rocker turned artist’s paintings.

“It reminded me of the ‘album’ albums we used to make,” McCartney said in a statement. “’Egypt Station’ starts off at the station on the first song and then each song is like a different station. So it gave us some idea to base all the songs around that,” he said.

“I think of it as a dream location that the music emanates from.”

McCartney recorded the album in Los Angeles and Britain with Greg Kurstin, the in-demand US producer best known for co-writing Adele’s mega-hit “Hello.”

The statement said that the album was designed with a “travelogue vibe,” starting and ending with instrumental tracks surrounding songs that form a “kaleidoscopic journey through myriad musical locales and eras.”

The album is his first since 2013’s “New,” on which Makkah rocked out with a range of younger producers and fresh sounds.

McCartney

Return

The first two tracks of “Egypt Station,” by contrast, mark a return to a more classic McCartney.

“Come on to Me” tells a tale of playful flirtation — “Before you grab coat, I’ll try to be discrete,” McCartney promises — with a mid-tempo rock guitar chorus before touches of organs, strings and a closing sitar.

“I Don’t Know” is driven by piano over a steady pop rhythm section as McCartney questions himself and whether he can comfort a lover.

McCartney is one of two living members of the Fab Four and last year appeared on the latest solo album of the other one, Ringo Starr.

McCartney, who turned 76 on Monday, has shown a burst of energy in recent years that included an extensive global tour throughout 2016 and 2017.

But he told Rolling Stone magazine two years ago that it would be “unimaginable — and unseemly” to keep performing when he is 80.

In a separate interview with DIY, he confirmed the long-rumored release of a 50th anniversary edition for The Beatles’ “White Album.” “It’s all in place, I’ve just got a couple of essays. It’s all lined up and it’s really good,” he said. “The album itself is very cool and it sounds like you’re in the room; that’s the great thing about doing remasters. But we’ve also got some demos of the songs, so you get things stripped right back to just John’s voice and a guitar. You just think, how good was John?! Amazing.”

McCartney also told the BBC’s Jo Whiley he has no plans to retire and, in fact, has a very busy few months ahead. “I was talking to — name dropping, clunk — Willie Nelson. I was talking about this whole retiring thing, ‘cause you know he’s older than I am! And he says, ‘Retire from what?’ and I think that just says it. You know, ‘Retire from what?’. So no, I love it, I enjoy it so we’re going to do some little gigs in July. Don’t know what those are going to be yet. Note to self, must try and figure it out ‘cause they’re approaching fast and then we do some bigger productions and things after that.”

In the basement of the British Library, curator Andy Linehan inspects the latest addition to a massive archive of wax cylinders, cassettes, LPs and CDs — a vinyl record that made musical history.

Released in the United States in 1948, Mendelssohn’s Concerto in E minor, performed by violinist Nathan Milstein with the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra, was the very first vinyl LP, or long playing record.

Format

The 12 inch 33-1/3 rpm format allowed longer pieces to be recorded, changing the way listeners enjoyed their music.

“The fact that the long playing record came into existence was a huge step for music sound recording and for the listener,” Linehan, curator of popular music in the British Library sound archive, said.

“Previously you could only get 3 minutes or so onto one side of a record and now because you had a narrower groove and a slower speed, you could get up to 20 minutes, which meant you could get a whole classical piece on one side of a record ... you could get a whole package of songs together on one record.”

Thursday marks 70 years since Columbia Records introduced the LP, and British music retailer HMV and label Sony Classical recreated 500 copies of the concerto to give away to fans, with one replica donated to the British Library’s archive.

The record adds to the library’s 250,000 collection of LPs, usually commercial releases in Britain, and artefacts going back to the beginning of sound recording, such as wax cylinders, patented by Thomas Edison in 1877, the first way fans could buy music to listen to at home.

Thursday’s anniversary comes at a time when vinyl has been enjoying a revival. In Britain, while it still only accounting for 7 percent of album sales, it draws fans of all ages.

According to the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), vinyl LP sales rose to 4.1 million last year from 205,292 in 2007.

“Vinyl is popular because people see it more artefact rather than utility,” Gennaro Castaldo, BPI communications director, said. “They love the whole ritual around buying it and then playing it at home and also the sound quality is much warmer, richer and people appreciate that.”

Rock remains the best selling vinyl genre and last year, the biggest seller on the format in Britain was Ed Sheeran’s “Divide” album. Older titles such as Amy Winehouse’s “Back To Black” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Rumours” were also in the top 10.

“Our record stores are stocking more vinyl than we’ve ever stocked in terms of the last 10 years,” Simon Winter, PR and events manager at HMV, said.

At the flagship HMV store on Oxford Street, in central London, music aficionados buying vinyl records said they appreciated its sound quality.