Paul McCartney – New
Concord
http://www.paulmccartney.com/

Rating: C

New by the Knight known as Sir Paul McCartney is a tough album to review. On one hand, there is nothing wrong with it. In fact, like most of McCartney’s post Beatle life…New is safe, vanilla flavored and sappy-happy. Perhaps More of the Same would be a better name for it.

What makes this hard to review is that Sir Paul is a damn good songwriter..okay…he’s an iconic songwriter…one of the best…in a class all by himself. He was a fucking Beatle and a Wing and a solo artist and all…so yeah, he’s great. But, he also is very pop and very smiley-likeable and very plain. The most groundbreaking thing he has done, other than The Fab Four, is smoke pot and tell everyone about it.

Okay, to be fair, that’s just not true, but it makes the point…and by ‘not true’ I mean that was not the most groundbreaking thing he did outside the Beatles…telling everyone about the pot stuff is true. He admitted it. But, what I am getting at is that New isn’t so new, it’s just more McCartney.

So, the album is not bad by any means. Its just Sir Paul suiting up with a team of mega producers to give his 71-year-old rock star body and voice relevance in the modern day, which is a shame. Paul is relevant just being Paul. There is no need to play it safe or put a good beat behind his music. If that is the ‘new’ in New then it really misses the point. I would rather hear music from Sir Paul’s soul than his mouth, but that is probably why I was always a John Lennon fan.

At the end of the day, I am glad Sir Paul is happy. I am glad he is still creative at his age. I am thrilled that we can still review his musical output and discuss new music from him. However....like I imagine his diet to be, this one is bland and leaves one hungry for “Paperback Writer.”

As unfair as that is to write, it is the truth. That said, one can do worse than to buy this album as it is Paul McCartney…and, after all, he is kind of a big deal around here.

By Jeb Wright