Paul McCartney’s stock hasn’t been this high since about 1966. Strange though it may seem, there was a time – not very long ago – when the world was not crying out for a nostalgic album about his pre-fame days. This was before everyone rediscovered their older relatives’ Beatles records in lockdown and gratefully devoured all eight hours of Get Back, which restored Macca’s reputation to its rudest health in decades. Put it this way: there wasn’t quite the same appetite for his 2012 jazz and trad-pop covers album ‘Kisses On The Bottom’.
Even Wings have been reassessed and come up trumps thanks to this year’s Man On The Run documentary – proof that Paul can now do no wrong. Press copies of ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’, his first album in six years, were accompanied by a statement promising “a collection of rare and revealing glimpses into memories never-before shared”. Fans never tire of hearing pop’s twinkly eyed granddad spin the same old yarns, so who wouldn’t love a magical mystery tour down memory lane?
His 21st solo album doesn’t quite deliver on that promise, though it’s undeniably moving when he pays tribute to his mum (“a saint”) and evokes his working-class roots in the Liverpool suburb of Speke, where the titular road can be found. And while it’s tethered to the past, what’s most impressive about ‘Dungeon Lane’ is how fresh it sounds, as he zigzags from tender acoustic balladry (lead single ‘Days We Left Behind’) to swaggering arena rock (‘Come Inside’) and swooning orchestral pop (‘Momma Gets By’). If he’s proved one thing since joining the Quarrymen in 1957, it’s that he’s far from bound by any sound or style.
McCartney co-produced the album with 35-year-old hot-shot Andrew Watt; the pair squeezed in sessions over a four-year period whenever the octogenarian’s hectic schedule allowed. In awe of his hero, Watt drove the project and was excited to record the elegiac ‘We Two’ on the very same Studer four-track that the Beatles used to create ‘A Day In The Life’. When he heard the demo of ‘Life Can Be Hard’, which channels the sentimental early 20th century pop standards Macca’s always adored, Watt suggested they reference the drums on 1968’s ‘Rocky Raccoon’. There’s a touching fragility to McCartney’s aged voice (except for when he lets rip on raucous opener ‘As You Lie There’) and these easter eggs make ‘Dungeon Lane’ even more poignant.
Elsewhere, against all odds, given that this album arrives some 63 years after the Beatles’ debut ‘Please Please Me’, Macca actually makes history on ‘The Boys Of Dungeon Lane’. Remarkably, the jaunty ‘Home To Us’ is his first-ever duet with Ringo Starr, who assists him in celebrating their rough-and-tumble hometown. ‘Days We Left Behind’, though, is the album’s real tear-jerker, as Paul nods to the “secret code” he shared with John Lennon but will never reveal. Still, despite the absence of any real bombshells, it’s a pleasure to accompany McCartney as he gets back to where he once belonged.
