Paul McCartney - McCartney III

Pitchfork 72

Read Stuart Berman’s review of the album.

The Guardian 0

(Capitol)
Entirely self-produced at home during ‘rockdown’, the former Beatle’s latest offering possesses the same playful spirit as his 1970 solo debut

The song that closes Paul McCartney’s latest solo album transcribes the to-do list of a man living a simpler life. Foxes are scaring the hens and lambs, so on Winter Bird/When Winter Comes, he’s got to see to the fence. Once that’s sorted, he might tackle the drainage issues in the carrot bed. Maybe he’ll get round to planting some trees to shade future generations.

Those with long memories might recognise the Paul McCartney at work on this track, and on swaths of McCartney III: it’s the back-to-land fugitive of his first solo album, McCartney (1970). Conceived as the Beatles were fractiously imploding, it was very much the work of a cultural powerhouse in a tailspin, resetting his dials on a Scottish farm with his young family.

We know by now that the author of Hey Jude and Let It Be remains a really decent guy to turn to in a crisis

McCartney III is released on 18 December