Word: mccartneyes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...want to scare a music critic, whisper these four words in his ear: new Paul McCartney album. In the 35 years since the Beatles broke up, McCartney has made 19 albums. Some have been good. Many have not. McCartney admits that he writes and records with varying degrees of seriousness, and the throngs who will pay any price to watch Sir Paul beep-beep his way through Drive My Car (he was the top-grossing live act in the world as recently as 2002) wouldn't think of holding that against him--nor would they think of declaring...
Luckily, the 20th Paul McCartney album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, out Sept. 13, makes matters easy. It took two years to record, in part because McCartney plays almost all the instruments on it (including drums, harmonium and flugelhorn) and in part because he actually cared. Chaos and Creation is adventurous, melodic and emotionally complicated--the first album in his post-Fab Four catalog that really matters. If it is not as dark or as brilliant as Time Out of Mind, Bob Dylan's "Hey, I can still do this!" album, it belongs on a shelf nearby. "Since...
...urgency behind McCartney's renewed ambition is not hard to figure out. Sitting in the Manhattan town house that serves as his office, he praises an "old black drummer," then stops mid-sentence. "I say 'old black drummer,' and it's terrifying, actually. He's about my age [James Gadson, 64]. Excuse me. I'm still coming to grips with the fact that I'm an old white cat." McCartney is 63. With his hair dyed forest-floor brown, he looks younger, "but numbers don't lie, man." He has already buried a wife of almost 30 years...
...When McCartney sorted through his emotions and decided that he wanted to say some of those unsaid things on a new record, he did what he always does--call George Martin. Martin has retired from producing, but he remains the artistic Svengali in McCartney's life, and in a shrewd bit of psychology, he suggested Nigel Godrich as a possible producer. Godrich is almost 30 years younger than McCartney, and his work with Radiohead (OK Computer) and Beck (Sea Change) has earned him a reputation as the most innovative producer in rock. He is also known for expressing his opinions...
Almost immediately, Godrich started dispensing them. McCartney brought in a sprawling series of demos he had recorded at home; Godrich listened and announced that he would work only on the songs that interested him. "No '50s rock-'n'-roll pastiche numbers," says Godrich. "He's a jolly old soul, but I thought maybe just for once we could steer him away from those things." After a week of recording, Godrich told McCartney that his regular band had to sit this one out. "In any tense moment, he'd look over at those guys and say, 'What do you think...