There’s been quite a breadcrumb trail leading up to the release of Paul McCartney’s 20th solo album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane – a The Rest is History podcast recorded at Abbey Road, interviews galore, and the expectation of an octogenarian McCartney delving into the deeper end of his past (almost a decade after he released Memory Almost Full).
Thus the Dungeon Lane of the title – a local boyhood hangout for McCartney, a kind of second-tier Penny Lane. Recorded between tours over a period of five years, the 14-song album is packed with tunes and melodies brought together in a busy rush of songs of many parts and places. At the same time, vocally, it displays the vulnerabilities of age and the passing of time, not just for McCartney, but for all us listeners too. We know that voice inside out, and we can hear the fade-out.
Opening song “As You Lie There”, is a co-write with producer Andrew Watt (also wrangling late greatness from the Stones’ upcoming album, Foreign Tongues), dating back to 2021. Spindly acoustic guitar chords with a White Album edge and a spoken-word verse leads to an irresistible double-tracked vocal melody that’s got “Macca” stamped all the way through like Brighton through rock. Then comes a Wings-era Seventies rock intervention, the screamy vocals on the “as you lie there” chorus falling just the legal side of obsession. Fuzz guitar, multitracked vocals and more melodic ideas and flourishes than any normal song can stand leads us to a spindly outro mirroring its intro. Neat. Too neat? The voice is hoarse and dry, and shows its age, but also its depth. It’s a good way in.
“Lost Horizon” pulls up more Seventies rock guitar from its roots, and pushes it into the foreground of a road song cum love song. What lovers aren’t looking to a lost horizon? “Days We Left Behind” is the album’s deep nostalgic dive, into McCartney’s and Lennon’s tethered pasts, into the lost horizons of the Sixties, into the weird potent magic of that whole period, itself now slipping across the horizon as the generation that grew up with it and into it begins to leave the world behind.
“Mountain Top” opens with a harpsichord sound reminiscent of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”, and a witty lyric that nods towards nodding out and slipping away on the shroom-fuelled expandables of mind. Again, the song corrals several song ideas and snippets into one piece.
“Down South” recalls early adventures with George Harrison, just a voice and guitar, and an “oh yeah” chorus. Sweet, uninflected, well told, well contained; while “We Two” sounds like a dream-based ode to Linda, another of his blessed silly love songs but with the emphatic italicising of age. Highlight must be the ebullient of “Home to Us” with a big Ringo back beat and supporting vocals from Chrissie Hynde and Sharleen Spiteri, as well as Ringo itself.
“Come Inside” is a mix of Glam and good old fashioned pop hooks wrapped round some bouncy guitar-piano boogie, while “Never Know” seems to shimmer into being, Macca duetting against his own mouth music and a bouncy, acoustic-led band sound, complete with a touch of “Fool on the Hill” flutes. Closing song “Momma Gets By” is a beauty of lyrical piano, lyrical strings, and the kind of heartfelt lyrical simplicity and plain speaking that is a Macca signature. It’s my favourite track of an album that looks back and looks within. It’s celebratory and loving more than stark and revealing,but what’s wrong with that, I’d like to know….
