Paul McCartney - New

New is the sixteenth solo studio album by British singer-songwriter Paul McCartney, originally released in October 2013 via Hear Music and MPL Communications.

New sees a return to form by McCartney who worked with four different producers on the album, Mark Ronson, Ethan Johns, Paul Epworth and Giles Martin (who also played the role as Executive Producer).

The album kicks off with a cracking rocker “Save Us” and sets the tone of the album, which is very “up”. The title track “New” sounds very much like something he might have recorded in the Beatles era, with a memorable chorus and arrangement. The second single “Queenie Eye” is a piano driven rocker with a strong chorus melody and call out backing vocals. This became a favourite song played live to promote the album. “Early Days” is a wistful acoustic song that is one of the strongest on the album.

Throughout McCartney’s voice sounds a little rough and he seems to struggle to reach the higher notes that he once sang in the Beatles and Wings days with ease. Despite this the album sounds fresh and unpolished.

McCartney’s backing band of Paul Wickens (keyboards), Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums), Brian Ray (guitars) and Rusty Anderson (guitars) play on some of the tracks, adding energy to the album, despite Paul playing a number of the instruments himself.

All in all this is a great album and wonderful to have a new set of original songs on LP.

The album peaked at #3 on both the UK and US Albums charts and #22 on the Australian ARIA Albums charts.

It also received positive reviews from the music critics with Rolling Stone magazine’s Will Hermes rating the album 4 starts (out of 5), writing:  “…New feels energized and full of joyous rock & roll invention. More than a sentimental journey, it's an album that wants to be part of the 21st-century pop dialogue…”