New

Description

Personnel: Toby Pitman (programming). Audio Mixer: Mark “Spike” Stent. Recording information: Abbey Road Studios, London; Air Studios, London; Avatar Studios, New York, NY; Henson Recording Studios, Los Angeles,CA; Hog Hill Mill, East Sussex; Wolftone Studios, London. Photographers: M.J. Kim; Mary McCartney . Arranger: Ben Foster . At its quietest moments, 2007’s Memory Almost Full played like a coda to Paul McCartney’s illustrious career; he seemed comfortable residing in the final act of his legend, happy to reflect and riff upon his achievements. Such measured meditation is largely absent from 2013’s New, the first collection of original material he’s released since 2007. New lives up to its title, finding McCartney eager, even anxious, to engage with modern music while simultaneously laying claim to the candied, intricate psychedelia of latter-day Beatles. Five decades into his career, reinvention isn’t expected from McCartney, so the shock arrives in the avenues Paul chooses to follow and, here, he’s enthusiastically embracing modernism and pop art. He brings in Mark Ronson, the producer best-known for hits by Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, to add a bit of modern snazz, but sharp guy that he is, McCartney knows that contemporary pop albums are created by a fleet of producers, so Paul Epworth, a collaborator of Adele, Foster the People, and Florence & the Machine, is hired along with Ethan Johns (a veteran of Kings of Leon and Laura Marling) and Giles Martin (the son of Beatles producer George Martin), each enlisted to give New a crisp, clean sheen. There are a lot of cooks in the kitchen but the chef is undoubtedly McCartney, with every song — from the kaleidoscopic title track to the delicate folk of “Hosanna” and the pounding, overstuffed “I Can Bet” — bearing his unmistakable stamp. From the moment it opens with the insistent, propulsive “Save Us,” this is a bright, vivid pop album, robust with color and so confident in its swagger that its assurance is alm