Reviewing a Beatle in 2026 seems like an almost-futile gesture: how do you distill all that history, all that influence, all that life, into another late-period album?At almost 84, Paul McCartney has spent the better part of six decades writing and performing music, experimenting with every genre, collaborating with everyone who matters (and some that don't), and being uncompromising to the very core. While Macca isn't above critique and criticism, his new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is a surprisingly lovely jaunt: 47 eclectic minutes that prove why he continues to be one of the greatest to ever do it.McCartney's unmistakable voice swoons, ripples, soars. Sometimes, it's a mournful croon; sometimes plaintive and spoken; we even get his cataclysmic, genre-inventing scream. Opener "As You Lie There" features them all and then some, as well as sufficient fuzz to fill a stadium. It also acts as an introduction to the album's themes and diverse sounds, featuring parts and sections and enough tonal shifts to rival some of his greatest songs. His songwriting abilities are almost inconceivable — and yet, from the outset, he makes it all look so easy.On The Boys of Dungeon Lane, McCartney eschews some of his more experimental tendencies for a historical, and thankfully anti-hagiographical, trip (LSD pun intended). Although there are touches of psychedelia, punk, music hall, hard rock, jazz, blues and a dozen or so other genres explored and amalgamated, it's still a relatively straightforward — and rocking — affair, more Wingsian than your usual McCartney solo effort. While the second half of the album features some tracks that lack the punch and immediacy of the first half (that recorder on "Never Knows" is just… sigh), it's still one of his strongest records in years.It doesn't hurt that the LP heavily features multi-Grammy-winning producer Andrew Watt — who has worked with everyone from Ozzy and the Stones, to the Biebs, Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato — who co-produced the album and co-wrote five tracks. Three songs ("Life Can Be Hard," "Salesman Saint" and "Momma Gets By") were co-arranged by Ben Foster and Giles Martin, while Chrissie Hynde and Sharleen Spiteri provided background vocals.That's it. For a high-profile artist such as McCartney, it's an extremely minimalist affair, with the man himself playing over a dozen instruments and co-handling production. This intimate vibe peppers the songs with a sense of the personal, of memory and modernity, serving as both a nostalgic trip through the singer-songwriter's illustrious career (understatement), as well as a fitting testament to his talents and continued relevance.Throughout the album, McCartney embraces his past without pretension, pompousness or shame, and even mentions magic mushrooms on the tape-loop-heavy "Mountain Top." "We Two," which uses a four-track tape machine that the Beatles themselves recorded on, ends on the same squelching loops that were featured on many a Fab Four track, as if the past is not only an inevitability, but something to be embraced, cherished and referenced unapologetically.The album's title comes from a lyric used by McCartney on a demo from 1991, with the titular lane — a road in the Speke area of Liverpool — acting as metaphor for McCartney's metaphysical trip down memory lane, the lyrics and sounds both drawing heavily from his childhood memories. The word "remember" shows up repeatedly throughout, addressed to listeners, characters and himself, while time seems to pass in various strange ways; sometimes quickly, but often even quicker.This deep look inward and backward means that there is some inevitable McCartney sentimentality, but he was never misanthropic or bitter, so it really shouldn't come as much of a surprise. "Down South," featuring a bubbling, almost distant vocal and skeletal acoustic guitar, is about hitchhiking with George Harrison, while "Home to Us" is his highly-anticipated Beatles "reunion" with Ringo Starr.Both songs feature some of McCartney's most explicit Beatles references in years, or maybe ever, singing on the former, "It was a good way to get to know you / Before we learned to twist and shout." And yet, these don't feel like Easter eggs or "cameos": instead, it's McCartney putting his reminiscences — sincere, honest, even sweet — on tape and sharing them with a world that will always wonder how the Beatles really felt about each other.With its warm, welcome rejection of apathy and cynicism, The Boys of Dungeon Lane is an inviting, accessible and surprisingly memorable listen. If this is to be McCartney's swan song, it's a beyond-fitting end to one of the most storied careers in pop culture history. On the wistful "Lost Horizon," McCartney sings, "You've got to live for now / Make every moment count." He always has.
Wavelength
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