Paul McCartney
McCartney

THE REVIEW

Hello. This is the best review you have ever read. And it is mine.

Rustic, homemade, unfinished, handcrafted - the existential crisis, the insecurity that seized McCartney following the breakup of the Beatles and his sense of loneliness, of loss, tends to surface, despite the various lively and energetic tracks, from the grooves of a humble album recorded at home with a rudimentary four-track, playing all the instruments alone - sketching often unfinished, raw musical fragments - in contrast to the refined and perfectionist McCartney who had crafted the complex medley of "Abbey Road".

The result is a small, cohesive gem, which quietly starts off modestly and, surprisingly, reveals some raw and hidden pearls, of humble splendor ("Maybe I'm Amazed", "Junk"). The album's underlying theme, latent, is solitude, the loss - palpable in the melancholy that exudes from certain pieces - and the refuge from it in the warmth of the domestic world, of family, in feelings and music: the opening is entrusted to a concise, explicit dedication, "The Lovely Linda", and the last lyrics of the record are the passionate, amazed - almost fearful - confession of someone saved from their loneliness by the love of their partner ("And Maybe I'm Afraid Of The Way I Need You"). Some of the main themes that will traverse Paul's solo songs are outlined.

The atmosphere of the album has something intimate, secluded, convalescent - it feels like observing a skilled carpenter intent on building a small birdhouse solely for his own pleasure, for his own consolation - allowing himself distractions, imperfections, eccentric creative indulgences - self-relieved from the burden of producing professionally, for work, for someone. It's a small work that smells of wood, of small handcrafted work - almost without regard for the audience that is listening - but as if what mattered was only the pleasure of playing freely.