Album: McCartney III
Artist: Paul McCartney
Release Date: December 18, 2020
Genre: Rock
Length: 0:44:48
Label: Capitol Records
Producer: Paul McCartney
This man will never not have IT...
Fifty years after McCartney and forty years after McCartney II, McCartney III is a continuation of Paul McCartney's solo albums under his surname. While this is the 18th solo album in his career, the McCartney trio has to be some of his finest work, and McCartney III is no different. When released, the album immediately reached #2 on the US Billboard Top 200 and #1 on the OCC UK Albums.
Just like the prior two albums in his surname series, McCartney III features Paul on every single instrument. This could be a bad thing for some artists but luckily Paul McCartney is naturally gifted at music in general and can slide by convincingly on every instrument.
The talent he possesses is very apparent in the first track "Long Tailed Winter Bird". While this track is mostly instrumental, the extraordinary amount of layers, build-up and unnatural sounds makes this song a perfect opener. There are few lyrics, except to provide an easy switch to incorporate the pompous drum part that perfectly fits with the overarching acoustic guitar theme, along with the strange recorder sound in the back, brings out a creepy sound to give this song a sense of story without physically telling a story. The comfortability of the Irish sounding guitar lick, with the ominous features of the voice and recorder that perfectly transition into the added bass and drums, makes this instrumental piece an exciting listen.
Although McCartney can play every instrument, his most convincing performance is through the bass guitar. The second track, "Find My Way" is a more traditional song with McCartney singing, and features the bass as a prominent point in the track. Once again the amount of layers and instruments inside the song is impressive and allows anyone who listens to this album to be excited to discover new sounds each and every time. The song stops at around three minutes in to give room for the oncoming instrument break that goes until the end, which is a fantastic use of production tools in order to increase listening enjoyment.
Obviously Paul McCartney is most famous for being one of the songwriters and members of The Beatles, which was almost sixty years ago. It's natural to have your voice change as you age, and McCartney is no different at almost eighty years old. Luckily for him, his arrangement and songwriting skills haven't faded one bit; in fact some could argue they have become more meaningful due to his life experiences. Songs like "Pretty Boys" which talk about the use of people as objects in photography, "Women And Wives" which focus on the life everyone is creating for the next generation of children, and "Deep Deep Feeling" where he sings about the emotions involved in loving someone. Throughout his entire career, he has been known for creating unique sounds in his music and luckily that hasn't degraded in quality.
The only song on the album to feature other people is the seventh track "Slidin'", which has Rusty Anderson on the electric guitar and Abe Laboriel Jr. on drums, who are both members of his band. Placing these two members on this track brings out an extra heaviness that sounds different than the other tracks. The pure power from the drums and the grit which pour through the electric guitar, along with the distortion effect on McCartney's voice, create a perfectly angry song that doesn't sound like a nearly eighty year old man is singing it at all. This song could easily be seen as a psychedelia track from a rock band coming out nowadays which is very impressive for someone that has been relevant since the early 1960s.
The first song is revisited in the final track "Winter Bird/When Winter Comes". This song is easily the most impressive in terms of vocal timbre. The way McCartney sings in this track is reminiscent of The Beatles and is hard to believe it was recorded in 2020. If you placed this track on The White Album, it would fit perfectly somewhere and that's insane since that was sixty years ago.
Across all of McCartney III, Paul proves once again why he was part of the greatest band in history and has continued success alone. The amount of different types of songs go from folk storytelling songs like "The Kiss Of Venus", rock jams like "Seize The Day", long experimental tracks like "Deep Deep Feeling", and poppy hits like "Deep Down", this album has it all. It almost seems like a collection of McCartney's career across an entire album, which is fascinating to listen to, especially to sound as good as he does at seventy-eight, this album is a definite recommend, especially if you're as big of a Beatles fan as I am...
Favorite Songs: "Long Tailed Winter Bird", "Slidin'", "Deep Down"
Least Favorite Songs: "The Kiss Of Venus"
Production Quality:
Mix = 10/10 (Perfectly mixed to the point you can hear every layer"
Innovation = 8.5/10
Songwriting Quality:
Arrangement = 9.5/10
Lyricism = 8.5/10
Instrumentation Quality:
Vocal Timbre = 8/10 (Some songs he sounds like he's his age, but songs like "Winter Bird/When Winter Comes" shock you into thinking it's The Beatles)
Instrumental Timbre = 10/10
Group Chemistry = 10/10 (Hard not to have chemistry with yourself but also it's tough to have this many layers that line up flawlessly and it's one person doing everything)
Overall Likability:
My Personal Rating = 8.5/10
Overall Rating: 9.15/10
Any confusion on how the rating is weighted/calculated, please look at my "About" page.
Remember this is all my opinion! Let me know if you agree, disagree or have any comments!