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McCartney's 20th studio album since the break up of The Beatles – sets Autumn off to a collection of brand new songs – and there are rumblings that this is 'Macca' at his best...

Chaos and Creation In The Back Yard by Paul McCartney

Sir Paul McCartney's 20th studio recording since the end of The Beatles hits the shelves – setting the Autumn off to a cracking collection of brand new songs – his first non-live release since Driving Rain, back in 2001.

The all new 13-track album (only out on CD - sorry vinyl fans!) has been put together in the UK and in America over the course of the last two years. It has a running time of just under 47 minutes and has been co-produced between McCartney himself and a man who’s been behind the console on records by Travis, Radiohead, and even Beck Hansen: Mr. Nigel Godrich.

Prelude

Prior to the album hitting the streets comes the warm up, with the release of the album opener: Fine Line, as a single. The release comes in a number of versions – the album one and as a ‘radio edit’ – and across the two CDs is variously backed with the new tracks Comfort Of Love and Growing Up Falling Down'

Chaos And Creation In The Back Yard is being heavily billed as a back to basics exercise in album making for McCartney – and being likened already to the do-it-yourself ad hoc style of his very first post Beatles solo album – called simply McCartney - from back in 1970.

As on the ‘original’ McCartney solo album, here the man himself plays virtually all the instruments. They include: drums, guitar, bass – naturally - keyboards, block flute, harmonium and even flugelhorn(!)

Amazon.co.uk say of the new Macca album: "Sir Paul is an elder statesman now, but Chaos and Creation in the Backyard finds him in considered and tastefully restrained form, penning songs worthy of his finest hour."

The full track listing for Chaos And Creation In The Back Yard looks like this:

1. Fine Line
2. How Kind Of You
3. Jenny Wren – described by McCartney himself as a being like (the) "daughter of Blackbird."
4. At The Mercy
5. Friends To Go
6. English Tea
7. Too Much Rain
8. A Certain Softness
9. Riding To Vanity Fair
10. Follow Me – previously debuted by McCartney at the 2004 Glastonbury Festival.
11. Promise To You Girl
12. This Never Happened Before
13. Anyway

For further information on McCartney – who must be among the most written about musicians in history – you’re spoilt for choice. There are loads of websites (check out MPL for the official, exhaustive history of the man himself) and your local library for countless books of every shade. Recent good additions to the mass of printed material include: Each One Believing: On Stage, Off Stage And Backstage (Chronicle Books, November 2004), The Unknown Paul McCartney: McCartney and the Avant-garde by Ian Peel (Reynolds & Hearn Limited) and – arguably the most definitive piece of Fabs/McCartney scholarship ever to see print - Revolution In The Head: The Beatles Music & The Sixties by Ian MacDonald (1997).

The album is also available initially as a 'Special Edition' CD/DVD double pack - the DVD is a half hour documentary: Between Chaos And Creation,which looks at the making of the album in the UK and America and features live performances of some of the songs.

Chaos and Creation In The Back Yard is out now.

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