Coming 50 years, almost to the day, since the recording of The Beatles’ first No.1, ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand’, Paul McCartney’s latest album has a lot to live up to. The surprise is that Macca still has something to say and can do it with a vigour and freshness that belies his 71 years.
‘Save Us’, produced by Adele man Paul Epworth, kicks things off. An upbeat rocker, it’s more Wings than Beatles with the only concession to 2013 being a heavily processed Edge-like guitar. One of a couple of tracks overseen by Mark Ronson, ‘Alligator’ is a mid-tempo ballad redolent of latter-day Tom Petty. It’s a decent tune both melodically and lyrically while Ronson also sires the title-cut, a catchy pop belter that could’ve graced any McCartney album in the last 40 years. Producer Ethan Johns (whose father Glyn worked with the Fab Four in their final years) presides over the most Beatles-esque songs here: the largely acoustic ‘Early Days’ is, as the name implies, full of nostalgic reminiscences and ruminations while the rocking ‘Turned Out’ blends ‘Get Back’ riffage with a winning melody.
Overseeing the entire affair, Giles Martin (son of George) has a considerable input too: the slow-burning space ballad ‘Looking At Her’ is one of the best songs here with its author’s slightly distorted vocals capturing the mood and atmosphere.
Layered acoustic guitars underpin the bouncy ‘Everybody Out There’, featuring what we’re told is “the McCartney Family Chorus”, in a call and response style. Elsewhere ‘Queenie Eye’ boasts ‘Lady Madonna’-style piano vamping. The incendiary ‘I Can Bet’ has a very familiar “Oh no” in the vocals, while more appealing nostalgia is evident on ‘On My Way To Work’, which finds Macca as a young man in uncharacteristic commuter mode – perhaps a rumination on how things might have turned out had he not gone to a certain garden fete all those years ago.

Key Track: 'Looking After Her'