mostly david ephgrave

I've had this bonus track from Paul McCartney's most recent studio album Egypt Station as an earworm for much of the past few weeks whether I like it or not. Luckily, I do like it; it's typical quirky Macca of the type no-one else does and it's always great to hear; I like it when he fucks about to entertain himself not worrying what people think. And while albums like McCartney II - which this song's reminiscent of - contain some of his most questionable material of all time (*cough* Frozen Jap *cough*) it's still always good to see him experiment and entertain himself. Once again, it serves to reiterate how surprisingly left-field he can be when left to his own devices, something that doesn't match up with the boring cliche of the sentimental balladeer. It's probably why I loved his Fireman album Electric Arguments so much as it just bristled with invention. And okay, this song's just a silly throwaway, but I can't help but like it. It may...

While I’m generally rather enamoured with Paul McCartney’s critically acclaimed new album Egypt Station (which is really very good) a song on it that touches me particularly and is an emotional listen is the beautiful Do it Now. What's struck me particularly about the album is the high level of songwriting on display across the board, and Do it Now’s one of the places when it’s most in evidence. Macca has mentioned in interviews how the title stems from a phrase his dad used to say as a positive encouragement, which instantly calls to mind the story about the genesis of the song Let it Be, when Paul had a dream in the midst of the Beatles' break-up where his mother (who he lost to cancer during his childhood) came to him and told him not to worry as everything would ultimately be okay. In many ways, Do it Now is like a companion piece to its hugely famous counterpart, but it still packs a punch. Some of the lyrics are particularly powerful ...

The soundtrack to my day today, inevitably, what with it being released this morning, was the new Paul McCartney album ‘Egypt Station’, and to paraphrase one of its lyrics, “It’s been a blast”. Listening to new material from an artist you’ve followed your whole life can be a tense experience, particularly when - like McCartney - they’re eternally teetering toward inevitable comparison with their own past. Paul’s one of a tiny handful of people who somehow manages to be both hugely respected for his work with The Beatles while also often being derided as a figure of fun who supposedly hasn’t done anything to rival his early days for an eternity. Now, the latter half of that sentence is bollocks and is something that - at least in the eyes of the music press - has been refuted so often by reviews of his recent work, which has generally been seen to have hit a bit of a purple streak since the late Nineties. Yet despite this, the cliche's a difficu...

I like a week with a new Paul McCartney album at the end of it. Unfortunately this situation doesn't tend to come up more than once every five years these days - or two to three if we’re lucky - but no-one could keep up the ridiculous two albums per year policy The Beatles applied in the 1960s (or at least one a year in the case of Wings in the 1970s). However, when the conditions are right, another Macca LP bubbles to the surface, and it’s fair to say he’s been on a bit of a creative roll ever since Flaming Pie emerged in 1997 with only a few minor blots on the landscape (as you’d expect with any artist). I’ve written regularly of how frustrated I get with the public perception of McCartney, which is lazy at best and often at odds with his obvious high ability and prolificity; it doesn’t matter how regularly his work is critically acclaimed (which is remarkably often for an act with such a long history) there’s still the suggestion he’s put ou...

The dropping of two new songs from Paul McCartney this week, combined with a warm and spirited appearance on the James Corden segment Carpool Karaoke, definitely bode well for the release of his next album ‘Egypt Station’ in September. The guy belting out ‘Come On to Me’ isn't a 76-year-old; in fact I think it's all a con. I’d happily fund research into whether 18 th June 1942 really is McCartney’s birth-date. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but the energy of the man - and his want to keep making music - is as extraordinary as it is envious. I don’t know how he does it but I’m grateful he does; if I can approach life and work with the same zest if I reach his age, I’ll be winning. I've never subscribed to the theory that an artist's early career is the only part worth listening to. Of course, the insane level of creativity McCartney exhibited from 1962 to 1970 (or even from 1970 to 1980) is practically without parallel, ...