Track Listing

1. Dance Tonight
2. Ever Present Past
3. See Your Sunshine
4. Only Mama Knows
5. You Tell Me
6. Mr. Bellamy
7. Gratitude
8. Vintage Clothes
9. That Was Me
10. Feet In The Clouds
11. House of Wax
12. The End Of The End
13. Nod Your Head

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #17306 in Music
• Released on: 2007-06-05
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Album Description
The 13 new songs on Memory Almost Full are performed entirely by Paul McCartney (excluding strings) and produced by Grammy Award-winner David Kahne (The Strokes, Sublime, Bruce Springsteen and more).

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"Many years from now" must have seemed like an understatement to 16-year-old Paul McCartney, wondering if he'd still be needed or fed at the age of 64. As it turned out, all doubt as to the latter had ceased by his 22nd birthday (though few could have predicted he'd end up washing down those meals with the liquid pride of Seattle). As to the former? Now that McCartney, as of the date of this album's release, has reached that mythic age, his greatest work is 40 years behind him, his solo peak over 30 years gone. Does the world need a new Paul McCartney album? The answer is yes, at least as much as it needs anything else that passes for music these days. With Memory Almost Full, Macca is back. No, it's not Ram or Band on the Run. It might not even be Flowers in the Dirt--in 1989, he had a full band, the support of Linda, and Elvis Costello as a collaborator. Here, he's on his own. Literally: on the majority of the tracks, everything but the strings is multi-instrumentalist Paul. But the surprise is that it's one of his freest, loosest affairs in years, sonically reminiscent of the Tug of War/Pipes of Peace era with nods to Abbey Road in the album-closing medley, McCartney's gravelly tones on "Gratitude," and 2007's version of "Her Majesty," the palate-cleansing "Nod Your Head." It's a surprise because of the album's inescapable sense of retrospection ("Ever Present Past," "Vintage Clothes," "That Was Me") and even a bit of weariness. The next-to-last song is "The End of the End," after all, in which McCartney tells us about what he'd like to happen "on the day that I die." (He wants "songs that were sung/to be hung out like blankets/that lovers have played on/and laid on while listening to songs that were sung," and will likely get his wish.) But it never gets overwhelming, for McCartney mostly resists his tendency to get plodding and maudlin. In fact, Memory Almost Full must be the most sanguine album made during the dissolution of a marriage since...well, ever. "What went out is coming back," he sings in "Vintage Clothes," and from the sound of things, that may not be just wishful thinking. What's past is prologue; if we're lucky, what to come may be McCartney's late renaissance. --Benjamin Lukoff

From the Artist
I actually started this album, Memory Almost Full, before my last album Chaos And Creation In The Backyard (released September 2005). The first recording session was back in the autumn of 2003 at Abbey Road with my touring band and producer David Kahne. I was right in the middle of it when I began talking with Nigel Godrich about a brand new project (which became Chaos And Creation In The Backyard).

When I was just finishing up everything concerned with Chaos and had just got the Grammy nominations (2006) I realised I had this album to go back to and finish off. So I got it out to listen to it again, wondering if I would enjoy it, but actually I really loved it. All I did at first was just listen to a couple of things and then I began to think, `OK, I like that track - now, what is wrong with it?' And it might be something like a drum sound, so then I would re-drum and see where we would get to.

I took it from there and built it up. I went through, track by track, making changes as I went along. I fixed things I wasn't too keen on and it just evolved from there. Without me knowing, or really trying, it started to get its own theme, a sort of thread that holds it all together. So I suppose it's about half new stuff and half old stuff from 2003.

In places it's a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective, drawing from memory, like memories from being a kid, from Liverpool and from summers gone. The album is evocative, emotional, rocking, but I can't really sum it up in one sentence.

There is a medley of 5 songs towards the end and that was purposefully retrospective. I thought this might be because I'm at this point in my life, but then I think about the times I was writing with John and a lot of that was also looking back. It's like me with `Penny Lane' and `Eleanor Rigby' - I'm still up to the same tricks!

I know people are going to look at some of the songs and interpret them in different ways but this has always been the case. The thing is that I love writing songs, so I just write and write. I never really get to a point where I start thinking I'm going to write about specific subjects. Inevitably though, what I am thinking is going to find its way into what I'm doing.

The opening track of the album is `Dance Tonight'. I recently got myself a mandolin and I was just playing about with it and came up with the basis of this track. A couple of weeks ago we made the video, which was great fun. It's directed by Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind) and stars Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook. I'm not going to give the plot away. You'll have to go and watch it for yourself, but we had a good time doing it.

The album title came after I had finished everything. For me, that's when they normally come, with the exception of maybe Sgt. Peppers, otherwise I don't think I have ever made an album with The Beatles, Wings or solo where I have thought of a title and a concept. I was thinking about what would sum the whole thing up and `Memory Almost Full' sprung to mind. It's a phrase that seemed to embrace modern life; in modern life our brains can get a bit overloaded. I realised I had also seen it come up on my phone a few times. When I started bouncing the idea round with some friends they nearly all got different meanings out of it, but they all said they loved it. So the feedback helped solidify the title.

After completing the album I then started thinking about the album artwork and how I'd want it to look. I really wanted to make the CD a desirable object. Something that I know I'd want to pick up from the shelf, something that would make people curious. I hope our final concept has done that. The album sleeve itself includes an etching by a friend of mine, Humphrey Ocean. As with the album lyrics, I'm looking forward to seeing how people might interpret the artwork.

Currently I'm just starting out on the promo trail and beginning to get the first bits of feedback about the album and so far so good! It's interesting now as I'm getting to hear what other people are making of the songs and what their feelings are. I'm also talking about the album myself and I'm really enjoying the discovery process.

I really enjoyed making this album with David Kahne and I'm proud of all the songs. We had a great time. I hope that the fun we had will communicate itself to the people who are going to listen to it.

All the best,

Paul McCartney, April 2007

Customer Reviews

"Searching for the Time That Went By So Fast...The Time I Thought Would Last..."
It was 40 years ago today (at least, this week) Paul McCartney asked, "Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?" It was among his most beloved compositions on "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," the Beatles LP defining 1967 (and, for many, the classic rock era) without unanimously being considered rock's (or the group's) finest album.

In "Vintage Clothes," among highlights on his vibrant new CD, "Memory Almost Full," the knighted grandfather warns, "Don't live in the past/Don't hold on to something that's changing fast." It's an odd sentiment from history's most successful living songwriter from its most famous band who, before turning 30, wrote backward glancing music hall classics like "Yesterday," "Honey Pie," and "Your Mother Should Know."

But announcing his intents early allows McCartney musical and lyrical space to examine his "ever present past" (to quote his zippy first single) with warmth if not bitterness. (This is sensible, as it's Macca's first release with Starbucks Coffee's new music label.) He knows each new song refers you to a Beatles or Wings classic. "House of Wax"'s guitar solo recalls 1968's White Album's distorted rock. "Dance Tonight," a deceptively simple melody over strummed, country stomp, echoes McCartney's first, homegrown solo records. Sir Paul sings his childhood scrapbook over "That Was Me"'s jazzy backbeat, from young Paul's appearing in scout camp and school plays to signing his first contract. He then concludes, "When I think that all this stuff could make a life/it's pretty hard to take it in."

"Only Mama Knows," "Memory's" most memorable song, at first recalls mid-70s chuggers like "Jet" and "Junior's Farm." But its pensive string arrangement wrapped around the song's center, McCartney's angry, resigned lyrics ("Only Mama knows/why she laid me down in this God-forsaken town/She was running too.") and impassioned vocals make it his strongest rocker since 1989's "My Brave Face."

Those thinking McCartney retired to concertos and frivolous "smoochy ballads" (the odd "Gratitude" notwithstanding) will be pleasantly surprised by this album's aggressive rock. Producer David Kahne, whose worked with everyone from 80s jangle rockers the Bangles and Matthew Sweet to crooner Tony Bennett, pushes McCartney's still-strong voice higher in the mix, while drummer Abe Laboriel establishes himself MVP of McCartney's crack traveling band.

"The End of the End," where McCartney asks for jokes and stories instead of tears at his funeral, is his gentler, solitary update of "Abbey Road"'s frenzied final moments (themselves an era's end.) While "Memory Almost Full" shows Paul McCartney acting and understanding his age, it also shows him returning rock fans' love and respect for him by trying some fresh musical and even marketing ideas, and sharing more of his history amid the hits. A key CD in his long, remarkable career, and highly recommended.

McCartney Gets Introspective...and Intriguing
As a person, Paul McCartney has done an efficient job of keeping his personal affairs outside of the public eye, and that judicious sense of self-protection has always extended to his music. One reason his solo career has been so frustrating is because we rarely catch a glimpse of what is really on his mind. His recent marital issues have been tabloid fodder for quite a while now, though, and I'd bet that many fans are secretly hoping that juicy tidbits concerning his divorce will be revealed in his newer material. A nasty break-up song would be most scintillating, but true fans already know that the odds of hearing anything so bluntly autobiographical from Sir Paul is virtually nonexistent.
Well, hold onto your hats. You still have to make presumptions, and assume even more, but it's obvious that McCartney has a lot on his mind, and he's putting those thoughts into lyrics. Unlike previous tactics, where he often applied his observations to third parties, "Memory Almost Full" displays McCartney singing mostly in the first person. He still keeps his cards fairly close to his vest, but you can't help but sense that he's really trying to convey something disarmingly honest about himself. Virtually every song on the album includes the word `I'. Of course, these songs could be characterizations, too, but I doubt it. There's such a strong underlying theme of mortality running through this collection of songs that it would nearly impossible to fake anything so heavy and earnest.
"Memory Almost Full" overflows with intense ruminations on time passing and the finality of death, and yet McCartney still maintains a whimsical tone throughout most of the disk. - How Paul McCartney-like is that? Who else could sing about impending death and make it sound like a Sunday drive? "Ever Present Past" has him dwelling on "times that have gone too fast" with a carefree shrug. "You Tell Me" is more inscrutable and poetic, but it catches McCartney questioning his own power of recall, singing, "Were we there? Was it real? Is it truly how I feel? Maybe. You tell me." Mr. Bellamy is certainly a classic McCartney characterization of a man contemplating suicide, or at least escaping his oppressors. The deeper you go into the disk, the more impressive (and impending) it becomes. "Vintage Clothes" is a clever allusion to growing old and watching your wardrobe turn into `vintage clothes'. "That Was Me" flashes images of a life, while observing, "when I think that all this stuff makes a life, it's pretty hard to take it in."
As you'd expect from a collection of McCartney songs, there's plenty of melody, and many sound oddly familiar, suggesting classic Wings tunes. "Only Mama Knows" hints at "Junior's Farm" and "Ever Present Past" lifts some of its melody from "Wonderful Christmastime," while "You Tell Me" and "House of Wax" both suggest bits of "Dear Friend." Many of these songs even feature Linda-esque harmonies, which is somehow simultaneously comforting and creepy. The sense of finality reaches its poetic climax on the aptly named "End of the End," wherein McCartney faces his own death as though the Grim Reaper was hovering over him. It is a stunningly beautiful moment that justifies the entire disk; indeed, it justifies his entire career. This would be the logical ending for "Memory Almost Full," but "Nod Your Head" provides a most unusual coda for such a well-adjusted album. Over a sea of noisy atonality, McCartney lets loose with some unbridled anger, aimed at a not quite estranged partner. Could this be that most rare moment when McCartney finally releases unbridled and mostly undisguised anger at someone who has deceived him? It's thoroughly incongruous with the rest of the disk and 100% unexpected, and especially unsettling coming at the end of an entire album's worth of songs that sum up a life well spent. A- Tom Ryan

Dance Upon the Battleground
Paul McCartney's "Memory Almost Full" is an excellent addition to his body of work. While I couldn't get the lyric section on his website to pull up for my computer, some of his lyrics are incredibly intriguing, as I hear them. "House of Wax" is a very interesting track with a great orchestral build and some of Paul's most expressive singing on the disc with blistering electric guitar, "Lightning hits the house of wax, women scream, "another round" to dance upon the battleground..." "You Tell Me" has Paul singing wistfully in his upper register with a stately melody. It evokes a flood of memories with each lyrical snapshot, "When was that summer when it never rained? The air was buzzing with the sweet old honey bee, let's see, you tell me." "Only Mama Knows" starts & concludes with a string orchestration. Then Paul breaks out into rock track, "On my hand was a plastic back with a picture of my face; I was crying, left to die in this God-forsaken place." What an exquisite track! "See Your Sunshine" bubbles with joy and puts a smile on my face like "Silly Love Songs." Other tracks like "Mr. Bellamy," "Vintage Clothes" & "Feet in the Clouds" are delights. This is an excellent outing from Paul McCartney, one that should be received joyfully by most of his fans. Bravo!