Obviously, he was in the Beatles.
But then Paul McCartney together with his late wife Linda made ‘Ram’ in 1971. Although it was dismissed and derided by critics on release (to the point that Paul never played it live), as far as I am concerned it is one of the few perfect pop albums ever made.
I did not grow up with the Beatles. I grew up with McCartney, and ‘Ram’ was my rosetta stone to music.
His new album ‘Egypt Station’ is not on that level. Neither is it a new ‘Band on the Run’ or even a ‘Tug of War’.
But it might just be up there with his unexpected late career return to form ‘Chaos and Creation in the Backyard’. What we get here is a surprisingly sprawling volley of ideas and hummable earworms that bear the inimitable McCartney imprint.
Silly? Yes.
Trivial? You bet. And particularly songs that try to get away with titles like ‘Fuh You’.
Insolent? More than you’d expect from someone aged 76.
But hey, this is pop music, not a dissertation on the quantum energy fluctuations of quarks. And really great pop doesn’t have to take itself seriously to be full of joy, life and relevance.
‘Egypt Station’ entered the US album charts at #1, and started at #3 in the UK. So given that there are reviews of this album all over the internet by now, I won’t go into detail. Suffice to say that although music that sells well is generally bad, this album is one of those exceptions that prove the rule.
In other words, Macca is still top of the pops. And as long as he is, the world will keep on turning.
Popgruppen 