McCartney III

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McCartney III
McCartney III Album Cover.jpg
Studio album by
Paul McCartney
Released18 December 2020 (2020-12-18)
Recorded2020[1][2]
StudioHogg Hill Mill, Sussex, England
GenreRock
Length44:48
LabelCapitol
ProducerPaul McCartney[3]
Paul McCartney chronology
Amoeba Gig
(2019) 		McCartney III
(2020) 		McCartney III Imagined
(2021)
Singles from McCartney III
  1. "Find My Way"
    Released: 18 December 2020

McCartney III is the 18th solo album by English musician Paul McCartney, released on 18 December 2020 by Capitol Records. It serves as a continuation to his solo albums McCartney (1970) and McCartney II (1980). Like those albums, McCartney III features McCartney on all instruments. It became McCartney's first UK number-one solo album since Flowers in the Dirt in 1989 and debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 albums chart.

Background[]

McCartney III was recorded in early 2020 at McCartney's studio in Sussex, England while in lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.[4][5] McCartney began by recording the instrument on which he wrote the song, then adding further layers. He said: "It was a lot of fun. It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album."[6]

Like previous McCartney albums, McCartney performed all the instruments himself.[1] He had also performed most of the instruments on his 2005 album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (described at the time by journalist David Hajdu as being "essentially McCartney III"[7]) and on his 2007 album Memory Almost Full. McCartney also played all the instruments on the Fireman albums Rushes (1998) and Electric Arguments (2008).

The album's cover art and typography was designed by artist Ed Ruscha,[8] an acquaintance of the McCartney family.[9]

Promotion[]

The domain name mccartneyiii.com was registered on 28 August 2020 by CSC Corporate Domains, the company that previously registered paulmccartney.com and flaming-pie.com (for the reissue of Flaming Pie, McCartney's 1997 studio album). Its landing page originally appeared with a 303 error notice, instead of the usual 404 error notice.[10]

On 16 October, teasers for the album started appearing on the streaming service Spotify with animations over the artwork for McCartney and McCartney II showing a dice with three pips facing upwards. The following week, McCartney's Twitter account started posting photos at 33 minutes past the hour with a recurring motif of three.[11] On 21 October, McCartney's social media channels officially announced the forthcoming release of the album on 11 December.[12] On 19 November, it was announced that due to unforeseeable production delays, the album release date had to be moved back one week to 18 December.[13]

Starting from 4 December 2020, McCartney sent via his Facebook page the first post of a series of 12 daily posts unveiling the titles of each of the 11 new tracks from his new album through murals painted in 12 different cities all over the world.[nb 1] Each mural is showing the title of a new track, an excerpt from its music score and its author (Paul McCartney) along with the album title and its release date.[14] McCartney also asked all musicians to post their video covers of his 11 new songs through his special website #12DaysOfPaul.[15]

During his appearance on The Howard Stern Show on 15 December 2020, McCartney revealed that American singer-songwriter Taylor Swift originally decided to postpone the release of her album Evermore by one week to respect the original 11 December release date of his album. Upon learning this, McCartney decided to release his album on 18 December instead so that Swift could move forward with the rollout of Evermore as initially planned.[16]

On 17 December, a day before the album release, two live appearances were revealed for that day: one on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and a YouTube Released special featuring Chris Rock, alongside the release date for the lead single "Find My Way", which was released at the same time as the album.[17]

Release[]

McCartney III was released on 18 December 2020 on CD, vinyl, cassette and digital formats.[13][11] The vinyl editions include a variety of colours: standard black, Third Man Records exclusive yellow-with-black-dots limited to 333 copies,[18] Third Man Records exclusive red limited to 3,000 copies,[19] #SpotifyFansFirst 130g Coke-bottle clear vinyl limited to 3,000 copies worldwide,[20] 130g yellow limited to 3,000 copies worldwide,[21] 130g violet limited to 3,000 copies worldwide,[22] Newbury Comics exclusive pink limited to 1,500 copies,[23] Target exclusive green,[18] uDiscover exclusive orange,[24] selected retailers exclusive blue,[25][26] other record stores exclusive white.[18]

Commercial performance[]

McCartney III performed strongly across a number of international charts. The album debuted at number one on the UK Albums Chart on 25 December 2020, marking his first number-one solo album in his home country in 31 years (since 1989's Flowers in the Dirt). The album reached the top spot by selling 33,079 album-equivalent units.[27] The album also reached the top 10 of many other European markets.

In the US, the album debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 with 107,000 equivalent album units – of which 104,000 were album sales – behind Taylor Swift's Evermore.[28] The placement earned McCartney the feat of being the first artist to have a new album in the top two chart positions in each of the last six decades.[28] McCartney III was also the top-selling album in its debut week in the US, outselling Swift's Evermore and Eminem's Music to Be Murdered By – Side B in pure sales (not including equivalent album units).[29] The album also recorded the third largest US vinyl sales week since Nielsen SoundScan tracking era began in 1991.[29]

Critical reception[]

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?7.6/10[30]
Metacritic81/100[31]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic4/5 stars[32]
The A.V. ClubB[33]
The Daily Telegraph4/5 stars[34]
Exclaim!9/10[35]
The Guardian4/5 stars[36]
The Independent4/5 stars[37]
NME4/5 stars[38]
Pitchfork7.2/10[39]
Rolling Stone4/5 stars[40]
Uncut4.5/5 stars[41]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, McCartney III has an average score of 81, based on 23 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[31] Aggregator AnyDecentMusic? gave it 7.6 out of 10, based on their assessment of the critical consensus.[30]

McCartney III Imagined[]

Announced on 11 March 2021, McCartney released the remix album McCartney III Imagined. Described as an album of "reinterpretations, remixes, and covers" of songs from McCartney III, it became available on streaming services on 16 April and was released on physical media by 23 July. The album includes Dominic Fike's version of "The Kiss of Venus", which was issued as its first single, with Beck's track and EOB's remix being the subsequent singles.[42][43][44] The selection of tracks was curated by McCartney himself, featuring "friends, fans, and brand new acquaintances".[45]

Track listing[]

All tracks written by Paul McCartney.

Standard edition

  1. "Long Tailed Winter Bird" – 5:16
  2. "Find My Way" – 3:54
  3. "Pretty Boys" – 3:00
  4. "Women and Wives" – 2:52
  5. "Lavatory Lil" – 2:22
  6. "Deep Deep Feeling" – 8:25
  7. "Slidin'" – 3:23
  8. "The Kiss of Venus" – 3:06
  9. "Seize the Day" – 3:20
  10. "Deep Down" – 5:52
  11. "Winter Bird / When Winter Comes" – 3:12

Japanese and Deluxe digital editions

  2. "Women and Wives" (Studio Outtake) – 3:16
  3. "Lavatory Lil" (Studio Outtake) – 2:09
  4. "The Kiss of Venus" (Phone Demo) – 2:12
  5. "Slidin'" (Düsseldorf Jam) – 5:00

Vinyl edition

Side one

  1. "Long Tailed Winter Bird" – 5:16
  2. "Find My Way" – 3:54
  3. "Pretty Boys" – 3:00
  4. "Women and Wives" – 2:52
  5. "Lavatory Lil" – 2:22
  6. "Slidin'" – 3:23

Side two

  1. "Deep Deep Feeling" – 8:25
  2. "The Kiss of Venus" – 3:06
  3. "Seize the Day" – 3:20
  4. "Deep Down" – 5:52
  5. "Winter Bird / When Winter Comes" – 3:12

Personnel[]

Sources[1][46]

Musicians

Production

Artwork

Charts[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ London, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Sydney, Toronto, Berlin, New York City, Tokyo, Chicago, Paris, Rio, Liverpool.

References[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c "'It's just me': an exclusive interview with Paul McCartney about McCartney III". Loud and Quiet. 21 October 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  2. ^ Beaumont-Thomas, Ben (21 October 2020). "Paul McCartney to release new album recorded alone in lockdown". The Guardian. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  3. ^ Martoccio, Angie (21 October 2020). "Paul McCartney Announces New Album, 'McCartney III'". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  4. ^ Minsker, Evan (21 October 2020). "Paul McCartney Announces New Album McCartney III". Pitchfork. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  5. ^ "UPDATED: McCartney III – The New Studio Album Out December 18". PaulMcCartney.com. 20 October 2020.
  6. ^ "Watch the trailer for the new Paul McCartney album". Louder. 21 October 2020. Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  7. ^ Hajdu, David (25 December 2005). "McCartney III". The New Republic. Retrieved 23 October 2020.
  8. ^ Staff. "McCartney III – The New Studio Album Out December 11". paulmccartney.com. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  9. ^ Bray, Elisa. "Paintings On The Wall – Ed Ruscha". paulmccartney.com. Retrieved 28 October 2020.
  10. ^ Chadwick, Jonathan (19 October 2020). "NEWS: McCartney III: Web teasers hint at a new Paul McCartney album recorded in lockdown". Retrieved 22 October 2020.
  11. ^ Jump up to: a b Willman, Chris (20 October 2020). "Paul McCartney Teases a 'McCartney III' Album on the Way". Retrieved 21 October 2020.
  12. ^ McCartney, Paul [@PaulMcCartney] (21 October 2020). "Paul McCartney on Twitter: McCartney III. The new album, out December 11th