The Guardian
(MPL/Capitol) From nostalgic returns to his Liverpool childhood to a crazed Glastonbury fantasia, these are songs written with real purpose and a master’s finesse The rock legend in the autumn of their years who chooses to release a new album is well advised to get themselves an angle. If the music that made you legendary was written and recorded long ago – and is highly unlikely to be displaced in the public’s affections by anything you do now – it’s good to have something that suggests a sense of purpose, beyond just adding to an already vast back catalogue for the sake of it. We’ve recently seen it with Bob Dylan’s Rough and Rowdy Ways , rooted in its jawdropping 17-minute survey of American political history, Murder Most Foul; and with Bruce Springsteen’s Only the Strong Survive , with its canny covers of soul and R&B classics. And an angle is clearly something that has occurred to Paul McCartney, too. From its title referencing a road in the suburb of Liverpool where McCartney spent his early childhood, to the circumstances of its launch – the first single Days We Left Behind was premiered not on YouTube or Spotify but BBC Radio Merseyside – his 27th studio album has been presented as a nostalgic look back at what you might call his pre-Fab years. Continue reading...
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