At the end of May, Sir Paul McCartney, soon to be 84, released The Boys of Dungeon Lane, the 20th solo album of his career. The album is named after an alley on the outskirts of Liverpool where the Beatles often spent time. In principle, the entire album is dedicated to the past: McCartney remembers not only his friends, but also his family, neighbors and his entire childhood. Music critic Anton Makarsky speaks specifically for Medusa about this honest and moving work.
You know, some people like to say, “Oh, nostalgia, I don’t like it that much.” I will never understand them. If you’re lucky, you’ll have a lot of good memories. And I was lucky: I grew up in Liverpool in a very loving family. I thought it was the same for everyone. But when I met John, I learned that his father left when he was three years old. It’s the same with Ringo. Then I realized how lucky I was, because I had such a wonderful upbringing by good people. Cheerful people. And those who love music. On the album I return to them at that time. I really like it there.
So is Sir Paul McCartney He tells about his new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane for BBC2 – which, of course, he can already look back on as much as he wants.
Primarily because one of the Beatles had long gone against the stereotype of sophisticated rockers who had been recording the same thing for decades. You can remember his experiments with synthesizers in McCartney’s second film in the 1980s, or his interest in modern electronics in 1993’s The Fireman project. Or 2000’s Liverpool Sound Collage, where he transformed the Beatles’ music beyond recognition.
Only in this century, for example, did he photograph himself with a clock camera Covers album and collaborated with Starbucks to test new music mixes. After the album of songs “Kisses on the Bottom”, typical for a musician of his level, he released “New” in 2013, in which he worked mainly with new producers for him. And on the earlier “McCartney III,” he called for a host of edits not just Damon Albarn, Beck and Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien, but also the younger Orange Bloods, Dominic Fike and Phoebe Bridgers.
Having satisfied his experimental ambitions, he continued doing what he did best – writing Paul McCartney songs. Don’t forget to work on mistakes. Whereas 2018’s “Egypt Station” was mostly a bit old-fashioned and a bit long, McCartney III, largely recorded and conceived during the Covid pandemic, is filled with a sense of the excitement of not being able to do anything but create. At times, classic British rock made use of a silly, almost playful style.
Despite the return to an old-school sound, “The Boys of Dungeon Lane” is nothing like Egypt Station, although here McCartney moves away from the spirit of McCartney III towards more serious themes and self-absorption. Primarily because it moves from more abstract topics to specific stories and recipients. From the girl next door I love in the opener While You Lie There to Ringo Starr recording a song with McCartney for the first time since the Beatles broke up on Home to Us. He also remembers other classmates – meeting John Lennon in the singing days we left behind and touring Britain with George Harrison in the Down South.
Just as in Peter Jackson’s massive documentary The Beatles: Get Back the Fab Four finally emerge as real people rather than classics, McCartney writes about them primarily as his friends, those he’s known almost since childhood. That is why this look back is poignant and free of those unpleasant traces of nostalgia that younger generations talk about now.
To some extent, this is an album about escape through creativity and more – after all, the Dange Lane of the title led to a beach near the River Mersey and became a symbol of escape from boring town halls for McCartney, Lennon and Harrison. It is noteworthy that the musician made a pilgrimage to this place warns, to talkIt is not worth visiting at all – it is simply dear to his heart. This honest approach to one’s memories is worth a lot – and it’s what makes The Boys of Dungeon Lane one of McCartney’s most interesting solo albums.
The sound of the album, which McCartney worked on with producer Andrew Watt, also contributes to this. Although he collaborates with pop stars like Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Post Malone, he is no less popular with established rockers from Iggy Pop and Ozzy Osbourne to Eddie Vedder and the Rolling Stones. Watt’s seasoned, knowledgeable style allows the songs to flourish in a soothing voice with somewhat mysterious guitars and vocal effects. They’re like memories: the images never appear clearly in our heads, and the sounds of the past seem to come from far away.
Many have noted the emotional power of The Beatles’ messages on The Days We Left Behind and Home, but the album’s ending is the strongest. In it, McCartney talks, without metaphors, in an almost documentary style, about his parents. On Salesman Saint, trumpeter Mike Davis provides a contrast to the album’s familiar sound — but his playing is reminiscent of the music that likely played in McCartney’s home as a child. The musician tries to take the place of his parents and feels what it means to raise a child during the war. And in the recent film, Momma Got By, he actually painted a picture of a mother who loved her father, despite his alcoholism.
Although work on The Boys of Dungeon Lane began in 2021, it appears that McCartney is entering into dialogue with future Beatles films that will be released in April 2028. Because of Them was released a week ago on McCartney’s channel He speaks Starring Paul Mescal – who will play a musician in the film – seems to put Sam Mendes in the spotlight first and foremost.
But the sensitive direction of Charlotte Wells, who directed My Sunshine, a poignant film about her father’s memories, still takes the video chat to a new level — especially with its poignant ending. McCartney and Michal leave the café, and inside we see the world of the past as if from the forties. The musician and actor is already leaving, but still turns around to look back again.
Now, as we see with Bohemian Rhapsody and Michael, a musical autobiography is not the place for deep thought. The focus is increasingly on the genius, rather than on his world, which was never black and white. This is what the new album seems to be trying to confront. We see in him, first and foremost, not McCartney the musician, but McCartney the person. The main thing is that he does not close his eyes to his childhood difficulties – this is a truly honest conversation with himself.
Artem Makarsky