Album Review: Paul McCartney, The Boys Of Dungeon Lane

Paul McCartney’s 21st album could easily see the former Beatle trading on former glories – but right from symphonic rock opener, ‘As You Lie There’, Macca proves that he wants you to sit up and listen.

It starts like Neil Diamond, morphs into Mötley Crüe, and then turns into a proggy sibling to The Beatles’ magnificent ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’, his scream proving there’s life in the old Beatle yet.

Much of the album is autobiographical, reflecting on McCartney’s youth in Liverpool – from the poignant ‘Salesman Saint’, about his parents’ struggles to make ends meet, through the acoustic ‘Down South’, which pays tribute to his musical legacy, to the string-soaked tear-jerker, ‘Momma Gets By’.

The super-trippy ‘Mountain Top’ reminds me of ‘Strawberry Fields’, while fellow Beatle Ringo Starr (who also released an impressive new solo album recently) contributes drums and vocals to ‘Home To Us’, complete with the kind of memorable chorus Macca has almost trademarked. ‘Never Know’ is similarly gorgeous, the Mozart of melody proving he’s still got the chops to pen perfect pop music.

Nostalgic ballad and single, ‘Days We Left Behind’, showcases McCartney’s vocal range, as does the falsetto of ‘Life Can Be Hard’, where it’s allied to sumptuous orchestration, infectious melody, and more tempo changes than a horserace on a dodgy stream.

The overblown pop-rock of ‘Ripples On A Pond’ and ‘Come Inside’, and the ‘70s’ chug-a-lug rock of ‘Lost Horizon’, remind us that Macca was in Wings too, but overall, this is a welcome return from the master.

8.5/10

The Boys of Dungeon Lane is out now – and you can listen here.