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Jason Maloney reviews
Chaos and Creation In The Backyard
Parlophone
- Year: 2005
- Cat No.: 3379612
- Rating: 8/10
Forever living in the shadows created – and still perpetuated – by former glories, Paul McCartney. may be one of only two people remaining in the world who can claim to have been a Beatle but there are surely times when he wishes his solo albums could be judged on merit alone. Each time he emerges with new material, the inevitable comparisons with his past and references to work which cemented his historical status in modern music will weigh heavy.
In truth, he often proves his own worst enemy; prone to lazy, cosy blandness and frequent lapses in quality control, Macca is almost predictably unpredictable. As a new album looms on the horizon, even ardent fans wonder which McCartney it will be on this occasion – the thoughtful, considered artist doing justice to his talent and legacy…or the throwaway, saccharine former legend passing off some half-baked tunes and dire lyrics?
Well, despite the dreadful and umpromising title, Chaos & Creation In The Backyard is not another Off The Ground or Press To Play. The album’s producer, Nigel “Radiohead” Godrich, ensured that if nothing else all traces of fluff and cack-handedness were filtered out. He made his charge work harder at his craft, and more unforgivingly, than anyone had made him do since the days of the Lennon/McCartney partnership.
By forcing the star’s matey live band out of the studio, not only was the recording atmosphere dramatically altered but virtually all instrumentation is by McCartney himself; a throwback to 1970s lo-fi solo debut set as well as the period in 1968 when tensions within The Beatles were at such a height that the Fab Four’s No.1 single The Ballad Of John & Yoko was actually a two-hander with Paul playing the drums and guitars in lieu of Ringo and George. Amazingly, the results often sound as though they are from that late-60s era rather than the 21st Century.
Opening belter (and first single) Fine Line shows the way in no-nonsense fashion, piano to the fore as a deceptively typical latterday McCartney midtempo jaunt suddenly lurches into another gear. For all the qualities of critically-acclaimed releases such as 1989’s Flowers In The Dirt or 1997’s Flaming Pie, they missed one crucial ingredient – Macca banging away on the old joanna. Whether hammering out divine power chords as on Fine Line or coaxing lovely melodies of the calibre of Promise To You Girl and Anyway, this is Paul McCartney in his element. The ivories form the basis of every track here, bringing a welcome return to the definitive style he excelled at during his ’60s and ’70s pomp.
There is, however, a slight drawback. In the pursuit of regaining some artistic depth and consistency, genuinely commercial and memorable songs are admittedly at a premium. Many of the 13 compositions reveal their beauty after a handful of listens, but the immediacy is lacking in much the same way it was on 2001’s Driving Rain. That record was fatally undone by a chronic absence of hummable material, not to mention ill-advised forays into hapless pretension. This is a much stronger and appealing set than its predecessor, concentrating on McCartney’s innate strengths as arranger and wordsmith and letting Godrich take care of the rest.
A different running order might have been wise, since the album’s weakest moments are sequenced early on; leaden efforts How Kind Of You and At The Mercy temper the deftness of Jenny Wren (Blackbird revisited in every sense) and English Tea‘s cheeky self-deprecation (“very twee, very me.”). The ambitious (and endlessly re-written) Riding To Vanity Fair offers a darker, dramatic interlude while the handful of love songs towards the end create a feelgood factor somewhat lacking earlier on the CD.
Gone, then, is the chirpy hit machine so derided in the 70s and 80s. Gone, too, the chummy old rocker just content to knock out some new stuff inbetween lucrative World Tours. The 2005 model McCartney, freshly determined and cojoled into fierce creative self-examination, is an altogether more serious proposition. Fine Line is his best individual solo turn since Maybe I’m Amazed. As a whole, Chaos & Creation In The Backyard needed a few more bonafide classics to be a complete success but he hasn’t sounded this vital on record for more than three decades.
Review copyright © Jason Maloney, 2005.
The full list of tracks included are :
1. Fine Line
2. How Kind of You
3. Jenny Wren
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
11. Promise To You Girl
12. This Never Happened Before
13. Anyway
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.