FILE UNDER: The cute Beatle is back!
CORPORATE LINE: Chaos And Creation In The Back Yard, Paul McCartney’s 20th studio recording since The Beatles, marks an end to a nearly four-year hiatus since his last studio recording, 2001’s platinum certified Driving Rain. The new 13-track album is produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Travis and Beck) and was recorded in London and Los Angeles over the course of the past two years. Its release coincides with the September 16th launch of McCartney’s all new 37-city U.S. Tour, his fastest selling concert tour ever.
Chaos And Creation In The Back Yard is a return to the basics for McCartney. The album successfully fuses his undeniable song writing talents with his unparalleled musicianship. In fact, McCartney is credited with playing the majority of the instruments on the album, which is somewhat reminiscent of McCartney (1970) when he was credited with playing all of the instruments. They include the drums, guitar, bass, keyboards, as well as many of the less traditional instruments such as block flute, harmonium and flugelhorn.
THE GREAT:
“Too Much Rain” – Simple and yet shows why McCartney has been so beloved by fans. This song could almost slip by until you really listen and fall under its spell.
“Riding to Vanity Fair” – An eerie track that isn’t reminiscent of the usual McCartney song—particularly the cute little songs that are found throughout Chaos.
THE AVERAGE:
“Fine Line” – A nice melody and beat that sounds very familiar.
“Friends To Go” – Perhaps this song is about George Harrison. It’s a pretty song with a good melody. There is however never a point where you are wowed.
“Promise To You Girl” – A really odd song. It’s quite peculiar and out of place on this record and yet it’s extremely interesting.
“Jenny Wren” – Paul has written some brilliant acoustic songs like “Blackbird” and “Mother Nature’s Son.” The difference with those tracks is the depth of lyric and melody—“Jenny Wren” has none of those.
“A Certain Softness” – It sounds like a clothing detergent song.
THE BAD:
Nothing.
FRANKLY: I will preface this by saying I’m a huge Beatles fan. Every time there is a solo record I’m so excited and hope to get a glimpse of their past greatness. McCartney seems to have been slipping more and more over the years. Ringo surprisingly has released much stronger albums. McCartney always has pretty songs but if “Fine Line” was written by anyone else we would never even notice it. The problem is that we never listen to any one of these songs and are completely stunned by its brilliance.
+ Rae Gun
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