Track Listing

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. Certain Softness
9. Riding to Vanity Fair
10. Follow Me
11. Promise to You Girl
12. This Never Happened Before
13. Anyway

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #20666 in Music
• Released on: 2005-09-13
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
UK 13-track vinyl LP vinyl co-produced with Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Travis and Beck) and featuring the single 'Fine Line', presented in gatefold picture sleeve and includes 4 limited edition art prints! Chaos And Creation In The Back Yard, Paul McCartney's 20th studio recording since The Beatles, marks an end to a nearly four-year hiatus since his last studio recording, 2001's platinum certified 'Driving Rain'. The new 13-track album is co-produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Travis and Beck) and McCartney, and was recorded in London and Los Angeles over the course of the past two years. Parlophone. 2005.

From Amazon.co.uk
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. McCartney crafts this collection of songs with exquisite balance, lining up haunting chimes and heartfelt lyrics ("Riding to Vanity Fair") alongside pounding "Hey Bulldog"-esque chords and eerily Beatles-ish multitracked vocals ("Promise to You Girl," "Fine Line") and, most impressively, distinctively new yet timeless gems of songcraft ("Anyway," "Jenny Wren"). Emotionally, Chaos and Creation manages to avoid being mired in oversentimentality, while retaining a powerful, understated sincerity. Poignant though it is, however, the record is essentially positive and hopeful: Sir Paul's playfulness beams through in his intonation, which picks up a line such as "It's not right/In your life/Too much rain" and breathes life and optimism into its words. "English Tea" completes the package, an unrepentantly twee serving of Anglo-nostalgia with recorder. Chaos and Creation in the Backyard displays the full range of McCartney's inimitable talent, presenting listeners with one of his finest solo albums. --Jonti Davies

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Rolling Stone
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is the freshest-sounding McCartney album in years.

Customer Reviews

This never happened to me anymore...
As a boy, I grew up with The Beatles. I felt the little hairs on my arms stand up when their first hit aired on the radio, went to see all their movies (yes, I believed The Beatles lived together in that big house with four doors), got stoned with Sergeant Pepper and even more with the second side of Abbey Road, worried when I saw how they grew apart in Let it Be, was heartbroken when the Fab Four finally split up.

I followed McCartney on his adventures as a solo artist and with Wings. Even though he wrote some of his best work during that period, his albums always lacked something, and often a lot - even Band on the Run had parts that I wanted to skip. Too many albums followed. I kinda lost interest after a while.

And then came Chaos and Creation. After playing it for the second time, I found that I was humming some of the melodies and riffs in my mind. I just had to play the album over and over. Then something weird happened. Tears started running down my face. Huh? This never happened to me anymore... not since A Long and Winding Road, anyway. But it did. And the album just keeps getting better.

History will have to prove if this is Paul's best album, as I suspect it is. It shows all he has to offer: great melodies, a voice that still lends itself to every mood and genre, lyrics that go from poetic to weird and from silly to corny. But hey, that is Paul. Honest and sincere, sometimes with a hint of irony, but never cynical. And the combination of those ingredients creates music that goes straight to the heart.

Much of the quality of Chaos and Creation is due to the excellent production. So, thanks to everyone who helped McCartney create this album. But above all, thanks to Paul for touching me again with his music now, just as he did when I was a boy.

Feel Free to Make Yourself at Home
Sir Paul McCartney's previous album, 2001's Driving Rain, was awarded almost unanimous critical approval. Interestingly enough, I loved it at first but slowly grew out of it, instead of the other way around. Pundits across the board are now giving their even more fervent blessings to Paul's newest effort. But will Chaos & Creation in the Backyard (2005) prove a repeat performance?

Well, let's see. At the recommendation of legendary Beatles maestro Sir George Martin, Chaos & Creation in the Backyard is produced by Nigel Godrich of Radiohead fame. Not surprisingly, he was an excellent choice. Godrich had a much greater hand in the creative process than most of Paul's former producers - it was at his behest Macca's touring band was dismissed, forcing the ex-Beatle to provide almost all the instrumentation himself ala his homemade solo debut. But Chaos & Creation is anything but homemade; with tasteful, layered arrangements and a crisp, glossy sound, there's a sense of craftsmanship and professionalism here that was lacking in the 1970 record. And if it wasn't directly his doing - Paul's own age and resultant maturity probably had some effect - Godrich's quality control was more than likely a factor in Chaos & Creation's moody, introspective tone.

Indeed, this record often finds Paul in or striving for a darker humour than his wont. To mixed results: Riding to Vanity Fair sags beneath its self-conscious malaise, but the rainy-day Jenny Wren is evidence Macca can still do damn fine melancholy. Which is not to say C&C is a gloomy album: this is Paul McCartney after all, a lover and an optimist at heart. So the LP has its share of romantic ballads and feel-good "uppers", even if there IS a conspicuous dearth of Sir Paul's trademark stylistic diversions. Both lyrically and tunefully Chaos is a marked improvement on Driving Rain. It's still hit-and-miss - witness the simplistic rhymes of Follow Me and This Never Happened Before, or How Kind of You's melodic meandering. But they're none of them BAD, and the pastoral tableaux of English Tea, pensive melancholia of At the Mercy, and Top 20 (!) single A Fine Line, among others, atone amply.

Because even when the material doesn't entirely work, the McCartney/Godrich partnership manages to salvage whatever charms a tune may possess and bring them to the fore. Whether it will ultimately turn out to be an encore of Driving Rain, I can't say; but as far as I can see Chaos & Creation in the Backyard is a respectable addition to a legendary oeuvre.

UNEQUIVOCAL MASTERPIECE
Paul McCartney is the most successful songwriter in history, with more number one songs and albums (including the Beatles, obviously) than anyone else.* There's a very good reason for this -- he writes great music and melodies.

Unlike some, I have enjoyed almost everything McCartney has had to offer. They've ranged from not-too-good ("Wild Life," "Wings at the Speed of Sound") to good ("Off the Ground," "McCartney," "Back to the Egg") to great ("Tug of War," "Flowers in the Dirt," "Driving Rain") to classic ("Band on the Run," "Ram," "Flaming Pie"). This album ranks among the latter.

It's hard to say just how great this album is, but as I listened, I realized I was listening to an outstanding piece of art. It's a non-Wings, pure McCartney Beatles album, plain and simple. Many songs here could be on the "White Album" and "Abbey Road" -- most notably "English Tea" (sure, it's drivel, but sweet fluff that only McCartney can pen effortlessly), "Jenny Wren," (yeah, yeah, "Blackbird," blah blah) "Promise to You Girl," and "This Never Happened Before" (an excellent track reminiscent of "You Never Give Me Your Money" without copying it). Sure, "Friends to Go" sounds like a George Harrison song, much the way "Riding to Jaipur," off 2001's "Driving Rain," did. (Perhaps he's chanelling George). But the standout track on this unequivocal masterpiece is "Riding to Vanity Fair;" its slow, methodic melody, complimented by a plaintive toy glockenspiel, is a trance-inducing pleasure.

A great asset of this album is that its 13 tunes clock in at just over 40 minutes, which is rare in this day (with the "hidden" track(s) it's still only about 46 minutes). THANK YOU!!! Albums have gotten way too long these days. And the songs are an average 3 minutes apiece -- another nice touch, since songs have also gotten too bloated lately (most of the Beatles' songs were between 2 1/2 and 3 minutes long).

The only complaints I have is that the opening of "Anyway" sounds like either "People Get Ready" or the opening of "Under the Bridge," depending on how you hear it. McCartney usually never sounds like anybody but himself or Beatles. But the song transforms and redeems itself, becoming one of the most heart-wrenching and moving songs on the album.

Some people ask why an artist McCartney's age would even bother; others say that artists his age, such as the Rolling Stones, should just retire. That's like telling a painter at age 65 that he or she is no longer allowed to paint! McCartney made it clear in a recent interview that he enjoys recording -- it's his hobby. He doesn't need the money, but he pours his heart into it, which should let you know that it's authentic.

We should be incredibly thankful that in these troubled times this wonderful, beautiful man has blessed us with brand new, soul-soothing music to make us smile as he always has. Pray he will continue to do so.

Thank you, Sir Paul McCartney.


*Guinness Book of World Records, Billboard