Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
The pedestal to which one of the Godfathers of British Pop has always been levered up to a point where he has become, not through his own design, a musical idol that is untouchable, a human being to whom the narrative has often been inscribed by others that he cannot do wrong, that all he put before the audience works. It is upon this grand pedestal that Paul McCartney has been put, the humble drive and beautiful spark of musicianship and humanity has almost, like the other members of The Beatles, been encased in gold, not allowed to corrode, to show fragility or the odd blemish in the studio.
Whilst this is a dangerous objective to hold, it is to the fans that the colossus has been built, and while it is those same fans who ultimately decree what is hip, what always is be venerated, it shows perhaps a little disingenuousness to the man himself; after all, yes he is performer of the highest order, but he is also human, he is allowed to produce an album that doesn’t quite fit the narrative, that does not have the dynamic that the fans want or desire.
Being human, showing the fragility of the condition of life is what we must always surely strive for, for in that the art within shines greater; and in Paul McCartney’s latest album, McCartney III, what the die-hard and the casual acquaintance can surely agree upon is that this solo album recorded during the first national lockdown of 2020, is a return to the beauty and lyrical wonder of songs that defined his initial outpourings of grief and hope after the Liverpool men who inspired millions, took their final bow as a group.
McCartney III is tender, playful, it is unrepentant, it is kind, and through tracks such as the opener Long Tailed Winter Bird, Women and Wives, the humour released in Lavatory Lil, Deep Seated Feeling, the exceptional The Kiss of Venus and Seize The Day, the sense of Paul McCartney at arguably his truest self, music-wise, for perhaps four decades, one not encumbered by tradition or fan-induced self-importance, and one that is all the better for it.
Embracing what can be seen as a naked progression, a touch of the continuance from McCartney and McCartney II in 1970 and 1980, this new set of songs are nothing short of the fragile made purposeful, stripped back in the use of collaboration, relying on the mind of the artist almost in its entirety, Paul McCartney, if ever he did anything wrong, has come back stronger and more fluid than ever. Outstanding and casually deliberate, McCartney III is the ending of a trilogy that has been fifty years in the making.
Ian D. Hall