Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is Paul McCartney's return to form, a truly spectacular recording by an artist of the first rank working at the peak of his powers. |
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Paul McCartney
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
(Special Edition)
Capitol (2005)
Accepting the fact that Paul McCartney is 63 years old becomes harder with every one of my passing birthdays. This year, it was especially hard because if the once-and-forever Beatle is 63, then I am 50. When he turns 64, I’ll be 51. It’s not that I’m hung up on my age, although I do admit to being more aware of it.
When I turned 40, I accepted the turn of the calendar page with a fair measure of humility and asserted that it was time to take stock of my life. What had I achieved? What did I hope to achieve in the next decade? Now, 10 years later, I find that assertion is somewhat more fragile. I’ve had some health problems over the past couple of years, and, believe you me, that gets you to thinking about the depth of your mortality.
I bet McCartney is feeling a bit reflective these days, although it’s hard to tell exactly what he’s thinking by listening to him in interviews; he tends to memorize the answers he gives in his first couple of Q and As and reels them off, one by one, to each successive reporter. Still the best public relations man in music, McCartney never divulges any more that he has to at the same time as he works the room and gets the points he wants to convey across to his audience.
In interviews given in support of his fantastic new album, McCartney sounds like he’s got something to prove. He tells interviewers that he might have tossed off songs on albums in the past. He posits that, this time around, he wanted to make an album that would be right on throughout, that he would be proud to call his own, that would stand the test of time. When you think about it, you can really only say that about a few albums from his solo years–McCartney, Ram, Band on the Run, Tug of War, maybe Flaming Pie, and most certainly Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.
Which is not to say that McCartney’s other solo albums are bad. They all contain gems, some more than others, but they’re variable and inconsistent quality-wise. For first- and second-generation Beatles fans (and the rest of you, for all I know), McCartney has never topped his Beatles songs in his solo years. But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t written and performed rings around his contemporaries and up-and-comers. He has.
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is a wonderful, warm and beautiful album, and here is what it is not: an album that only a 63-year-old musician could have made. I don’t think age has anything to do with it. I think Nigel Godrich, Radiohead’s producer, had a lot to do with it; by most reports (and by McCartney’s admission), he let Godrich do the producing. If Godrich thought a lyric was bad, he told McCartney. If he thought some music, or a vocal, or whatever you’d care to point a finger at, wasn’t cutting it, he said so. And he didn’t take no for an answer, even though McCartney thought about firing him at a certain point.
Anyone with even a small measure of McCartney knowledge knows that in his solo years, the Cute Beatle has frequently surrounded himself with "yes" men, people who are virtually speechless in his presence, who find it extremely difficult to say no to him. The designers that made up Hipnosis, the late, great album cover (and more) design firm, tell a story in their book about meeting up with McCartney at his house to discuss ideas for the Wings Over America package. It was hard, they recalled, not telling McCartney his ideas weren’t very good. Macca told them that he would never know if his ideas weren’t cutting the mustard if no one told him, at which point the Hipnosis boys decided to park the fan bus at the curb and tell McCartney what they really thought, which cleared the way for the design that eventually graced the cover.
Godrich is no "yes" man, and apparently that made all the difference. Even a surface listen to this album reveals some startling changes in the Macca sound; for one thing, McCartney’s vocals are up front, close-miked, and just about as dry as a bone, which makes for an intimate listening experience. Another thing that is clearly evident is how good the lyrics are this time around; they show a writer being careful with his words and servicing his goals with aplomb.
Even more importantly, the songs, however introspective you care to view them as, are true to the listener’s perception of what makes a McCartney song and performance special. The melodies are instinctively inviting and instantly memorable and the hooks are plentiful. And playing almost all of the instruments (after Godrich sent McCartney’s road band home after two weeks of recording) was the right way to go; there is a very distinctive, honest quality to McCartney’s playing that really sounds great and drives the songs home. His drumming, in particular, is great. In fact, it’s better than ever.
McCartney is singing better than he has in many years (certainly better than he did on the execrable Driving Rain). It sounds like he dropped the keys so that he could sing in a more comfortable range; there’s no straining to hit notes. On many songs, McCartney sounds like a man half his age. It is obvious, from every vantage point that he set out to make a record that sounded like a Paul McCartney record; that was also Godrich’s goal. The fantastic news is that they succeeded.
From the hit-worthy, can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head rocking opener, "Fine Line," its propulsive rhythm (and piano) burrowing under some advice-oriented lyrics, to the tender, classic-styled Macca balladry of "Anyway," Chaos and Creation is a clear winner.
The incredible "Jenny Wren," which McCartney calls the daughter of "Blackbird," features some spectacular acoustic guitar playing and an intoxicating melody that is classic Macca. "Friends to Go" and "Follow Me" are terrific, acoustic pop songs that could have found a place on nearly any McCartney solo album you’d care to name. In fact, most of the material on this album sounds like it would fit in splendidly on an album released in between McCartney and Ram. All of these songs ooze the kind of earthy, melodic charm associated with those records.
The three-part "Promise to You Girl" is a marvel and a half. Singing solo with piano accompaniment, setting up the song, McCartney harmonizes sweetly with himself on a bridge that becomes the song proper, one of this album’s only two genuinely upbeat tunes. McCartney fires off a blistering electric guitar solo that recalls his work on Ram (in fact, this song would have snuggled comfortably coming just before "Back Seat of My Car"). McCartney’s take-no-prisoners piano playing, and some neat percussion, are solid highlights.
The album’s best song, the incredible "Too Much Rain," is a real classic, with its qualitative metaphor positing rain as the pain in one’s life; McCartney’s sensitive vocal, which travels the breadth of his range, will make the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end.
Well, so will the rest of this album. The DVD that comes along with Chaos' Special Edition features an excellent making-of-the-album documentary and the video for "Fine Line" (in smashing DTS and 5.1 sound, if you are so wired). The line drawings segment didn't do it for me. On balance, a nice touch.
I was dreading this Chaos, after the collective low point that was Driving Rain, but I needn’t have worried. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, with its simply stunning, familiar-to-longtime-fans Mike McCartney cover portrait of Our Kid back in the day, is an unqualified success. This album proves that there’s a lot of life left in Paul McCartney’s wondrous career. I more than eagerly await his next album, whenever that will come to be, no matter how young (or old) I feel.
Alan Haber
October 4, 2005