Macca gets back to what he does best
. . . even if John Lennon would have called it ‘granny music’
PAUL McCARTNEY: Egypt Station (Capitol) Verdict: Not resting on his laurels
AWEEK which began with a calamity for one muchloved Liverpool institution is ending with a satisfying return from another.
The fire that destroyed part of the unoccupied Littlewoods Pools Building on Sunday night scarred a city landmark, although the distinctive art deco structure is expected to survive. Sir Paul McCartney, happily, is in no need of restoration. On the evidence of his 17th solo album, he’s in excellent shape.
His ear for a memorable tune is intact, his voice — despite murmurs to the contrary — has lost none of its snap and, at 76, he can still rock out. Egypt Station arrives five years after his last studio effort, the uneven New.
That album was made with a disparate crew of hip young gunslingers.
This time, one rogue track aside, the former Beatle has worked with a single producer, American jazz pianist Greg Kurstin, and the results are more consistently rewarding.
Taking its title from the McCartney painting adorning its sleeve, the album has been likened, by the singer, to his Sixties and Seventies work.
‘It reminds me of the albums that we used to make,’ he says. ‘ Each song is like a different station.’
With songs recorded on instruments younger musicians might regard as antiques — harpsichords, harmoniums and Abbey Road’s famous Mrs Mills piano — it’s a comeback with an old-school feel.
The opening songs capture Macca at his best. I Don’t Know is a ballad on which he underscores his credentials as the man who wrote The Long And Winding Road rather than the one who came up with Silly Love Songs.
An antidote to Sir Paul’s cheery, thumbs- up public persona, it gives the listener a glimpse of an individual racked by self- doubt: ‘I got crows at my window and dogs at my door / I don’t think I can take any more / What am I doing wrong?’
Featuring plangent piano and trademark bass runs, it’s a brilliant start.
With the Muscle Shoals Horns and that Mrs Mills piano to the fore, Come On To Me is more upbeat, while the acoustic Happy With You is a sentimental reflection on the singer’s near seven-year marriage to Nancy Shevell.
John Lennon would probably call it ‘Paul’s granny music’, but McCartney has few equals as a writer of love songs.
The only major misstep is Fuh You, co- written and produced by OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder, the man behind Leona Lewis’s 2007 song Bleeding Love.
Tedder is a very skilful contemporary hit-maker, but Fuh You is so lacking in wit and sensitivity it sounds like a track from another album.
McCartney’s own efforts are far catchier. His melodic gifts are given free rein on Dominoes, while Do It Now is enhanced by orchestral flourishes and sublime harmonies and Despite Repeated Warnings is a multisong epic in the tradition of A Day In The Life or, more recently, the closing suite on 2007’s Memory Almost Full.
Almost an hour in length, Egypt Station occasionally loses focus, and some judicious edits might have made the album punchier.
The fact that McCartney hasn’t worked with an equally formidable sidekick since a fleeting association with Elvis Costello in the late Eighties is sometimes telling, but this is still a terrific record.
His winter tour should be a familiar, hits- driven celebration, but he continues to use the studio to try out fresh ideas: a national treasure who refuses to rest on his laurels.
Egypt Station is out today. paul McCartney’s Freshen Up tour starts on December 12 at the Echo Arena, Liverpool. paulmccartney.com