Paul McCartney – New

Paul McCartney has done a lot with his 71 years. For 50 of them, he’s been recording music, and for 42 of those 50, he’s been doing it as an ex-Beatle. This has led to some issues. The first of these is that The Beatles were quite a decent band, who made quite a splash. This is not going to be yet another blog where I bang on about them, but I do want to touch on the seemingly crippling legacy that was left to their members after 1970. McCartney has only spent 16% of his recording career as a Beatle, and yet those 10 hours of music that the band left us have loomed large ever since. The main reason for this, in my opinion, is that his best work in The Beatles represents his best work. Reined and harnessed by John Lennon and George Martin, aided by a relentless drive, fierce work ethic and the unchained creativity of youth, McCartney either wrote or co-wrote some of the greatest pop music ever committed to tape. Add that to the zeitgeist-defining social and cultural impact of the band and you have a period of his career that couldn’t really be topped. 1970 arrived and The Beatles separated, leaving four musicians of incredible talent with the steepest possible mountain to climb.

Then McCartney climbed it.  Or at least seemed to. The list of accomplishments under his belt since his most famous chapter closed is quite mind boggling. While I could list it here, it would be simpler to look it up and so I will skip to the point: it’s unusually difficult to try and work out what there is left to achieve for Sir Thumbs-aloft.

One thing that is left, in my opinion, is to record a ‘great’ album without the other Beatles. McCartney’s musical decision making has often been questioned and has frequently been the subject of criticism from those both inside and outside his immediate circle. When he gets it right, there are few who can do it better, but too often his natural gift for melody is spoiled by what seems to be a propensity for lazy lyricism. After the Beatles split in 1970, there are plenty of examples of just why McCartney is so revered among songwriters, with genuinely inspired moments shining through on every album – but they are diluted by a complete lack of restraint and the kind of indulgence that seems to invade the mind of a genius if left unchecked. Michael Jackson, Prince, Brian Wilson, David Bowie, Noel Gallagher, Johnny Cash, Elvis, and indeed John Lennon, all suffered from it, and while most were able to eventually re-focus their compass, they all suffered badly from it. McCartney’s output in the 1970s and 80s is perhaps more polluted than others in this manner. For every ‘Jet’ there is a ‘Country Dreamer’, for every ‘Tug of War’ there’s a ‘Frog Chorus’ and for every decent album (Band on the Run, Ram, or Venus and Mars) there’s a ‘Press to Play’. McCartney has never lost his incredible ability to write a good melody (for all the criticism the Frog Chorus has rightly attracted, the melody is actually lovely) but his post-Beatles output has never scaled the heights of greatness because he hasn’t put the effort in to make sure his lyrics match his melodies. I say ‘hasn’t put the effort in’ because it smacks of laziness. There’s no doubt he can write great lyrics; the evidence is plentiful, but just because he can, doesn’t mean he does. Even John Lennon knew that McCartney could be a great lyricist:

“Paul is quite a capable lyricist who doesn't think he is. So he doesn't go for it. Rather than face the problem, he would avoid it. 'Hey Jude' is a damn good set of lyrics. I made no contribution to the lyrics there. And a couple of lines he has come up with show indications of a good lyricist. But he just hasn't taken it anywhere.”

-          John Lennon, Playboy Magazine, 1980.

With 1997’s ‘Flaming Pie’, McCartney began a period of releasing critically acclaimed albums that seemed to represent an entirely new chapter in his career, but in fact the albums are very much in the mould of his earlier work. Great tunes, hit-and-miss lyrics. The closest he has ever come to a ‘great’ album is still 2005’s ‘Chaos and Creation in the Backyard’. Faced with a producer who refused to defer to his artist’s legendary status, McCartney was forced into a corner and came out swinging, writing songs of genuinely artistic relevance, and painting a sonic landscape that reminded us all that he has earned his place at the top of music’s pantheon. Still, the old failings were there at moments, but overall the album remains a testament to what he can do when he’s pushed. After that though came more of the same. ‘Memory Almost Full’ is perfectly pleasant, as was last year’s covers album, ‘Kisses on the Bottom’ – but there is an unshakeable feeling that McCartney has made things just a bit too easy for himself. So, is ‘New’ actually anything new?

Sadly, not really. When the album is good, it’s very very good, and two or three of the tracks prove that he’s still an artist in transition, constantly pushing to create something unusual and to tread previously untrodden ground. The opening track ‘Save Us’ is a tightly packed high-octane number that doesn’t necessarily re-invent the wheel but is massively effective, and the title track is classic McCartney – catchy beyond belief, without ever challenging its listener. The rest of the album is much of a muchness. It’s not bad, by any stretch – there are no songs that I’d describe as actually being unpleasant to listen to, but there aren’t any others that make me sit up and take notice.

And so we return to The Beatles. ‘New’ suffers most from being the latest output from someone who has been here before. How does Paul McCartney write something that’s actually new? Apparently, “Everybody Out There” was written as a song “to get the crowd singing along”. Ok, that’s fine, but we’re talking about someone who wrote ‘Hey Jude’. Does he really need a new song to get people singing along? There are some decent pop moments on there, but he already wrote ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ and ‘All my Loving’ – he’s done pop. New wife Nancy gets a few mentions on some touching ballads, but he already wrote ‘Yesterday’ and ‘Here, There and Everywhere’ – there is no musical direction in which he can travel without his work being compared (probably unfavourably) to what’s gone before. This is why the songs that are good are SO good. ‘Appreciate’ and ‘Looking at Her’ particularly impress, the former sounding less like a Paul McCartney song than arguably anything before it that has been released under his name, and the latter combining a Beatles-esque subject with beautifully ethereal guitars and sonic ambition that surprises and delights in equal measure.

A friend of mine once pointed out that every single McCartney release has always contained something worth listening to. I think that’s true; even on the most dirge-like releases of his colourful solo career, McCartney has never failed to turn up at least one gem. This album certainly continues that pattern, but is unlikely to win over any new fans. But then, there’s the benefit of having been a Beatle – he doesn’t really need to. In a solo career spanning over 40 years, we fans should be grateful that he still has any drive or creativity still left – and both seem in ample supply here, so it’s nice to see him enjoying his music, and it’s nice to still be enjoying it.