Paul McCartney’s solo work has always taken around twenty years to come into fashion. A result, inevitably, of each new release being met with: ‘very good, but it’s not The Beatles’.
His 80s albums are only now being re-evaluated for their regular sparks of brilliance; Wings didn’t get their due respect until Alan Partridge made them so uncool they were cool. Recognising this, Macca’s come full circle and made a covers record of antique standards set in a dusky jazz bar 20 years before Love Me Do.
Brushed drums, double bass, violin, piano and a couple of scratchy violins ooze show tunes and Brill Building ballads from Sir Paul’s youth, casting him as a doleful boho Bing or a fragile male Ella on The Glory Of Love, Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate The Positive and Bye Bye Blackbird.
With his voice notably strained by the format you’d file it under ‘Self-Indulgent Swansong’ if it wasn’t a rather charming throwback to the love of the classics he exhibited on ‘Til There Was You and A Taste Of Honey.
From arguably our greatest living songwriter, though, we’d have preferred original tunes in the same style to fawn over in 2037.
