Paul McCartney
Egypt Station
Release Date: Sep 7, 2018
Genre(s): Pop/Rock
Record label: Capitol
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Album Review: Egypt Station by Paul McCartney
Fairly Good, Based on 11 Critics
Based on rating 4/5
Macca gives the fans what they want on this whistle-stop tour through his world-changing career You have to admire Paul McCartney's work ethic. He's a man with nothing to prove. Zero. His art has shaped the world we live in. He's 76 years old. He's one of a handful of bona fide music legends still ….
Based on rating 7/10
The charming father of Western pop music, Sir Paul McCartney has had a remarkable career. Not many songwriters can claim to have been in one of the most influential bands in history, written some of the most successful tunes in living memory, and still be going some 55 years later. He's been a superstar since the age of 21, and at 76 he continues the tradition of "trademarked" McCartney songwriting.
Based on rating 7/10
Teaming with Greg Kurstin -- a producer best-known for helming Adele's Grammy-winning 25, but also a musician in his own right, collaborating with Inara George in the savvy retro duo the Bird and the Bee -- is a signal from Paul McCartney that he intends Egypt Station, his 18th solo album, to be a thoroughly modern affair. It is, but not in the way that the glitzy 2013 album New, with its fair share of Mark Ronson productions, was. Kurstin doesn't specialize in gaudiness, he coaxes his collaborators to act like a bright, colorful version of their best selves, which is what he achieves with McCartney here.
Based on rating 7/10
Paul McCartney has often gotten a bad rap for his post-Beatles work, mostly because of the occasionally corny Wings years, but he's actually amassed a fascinating and unpredictable solo discography. From DIY experimentation to sprawling pop to dalliances with electronics, he's covered plenty of ground over the years, and the 76-year-old songwriter keeps things eclectic on Egypt Station. This is his first album in five years, and it makes up for lost time with its generous 16 tracks and a runtime of almost an hour. The introductory ….
Based on rating B-
Listen and subscribe via Apple Podcasts | Google Play | Radio Public | Stitcher | RSS The Lowdown: On his 18th or 25th solo record (depending on how you feel about Wings), Paul McCartney continues his late-career explorations of love, sex, death, and the spaces in between in his first work for longtime label home Capitol Records since 2005's Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. The Good: McCartney's always brought a light touch when approaching life's biggest questions, and he uses it well on Egypt Station's best moments (which are also, generally speaking, its quietest). From admitting that things don't get clearer with age on the piano pub ballad "I Don't Know" to extolling the virtues of a boring home life on "Happy with You", McCartney continues to provide solid blueprints for how to age gracefully, pain and all.
Based on rating 6/10
There are two versions of Paul McCartney - not in the sense of a 'Paul is dead' conspiracy, but the two warring instincts in his songwriting. The first McCartney is one of pop's great innovators and a songwriter with much more in common with John Lennon than his critics give him credit. The second, and more dominant in recent years, is a pathological crowd-pleaser.
Based on rating 3/5
It goes without saying that Paul McCartney has earned the right to do whatever the fuck he wants. After all, the man's partially responsible for the entire of popular music. And, it's nothing short of a joy to see him so enthused about working with current hitmakers - 'Egypt Station' sees the Beatle calling up Greg Kurstin and Ryan Tedder. Artists of a much younger vintage than ol' Macca are fine resting on past successes, throwing out record after record of indistinguishable mulch: and they didn't write 'Hey Jude'.
Based on rating 3/5
Some divisive figures are divisive for a cogent reason - self-serving sociopaths, dangerous fucking maniacs, and so forth. It's genuinely surprising, though, how deeply engraved the line is these days between unconditional Beatle disciples and those for whom anyone and anything Beatle-related earns an automatic wave-through to the most dank toilet of opprobrium. I mean, look: here's Paul McCartney's new solo album.
Based on rating 5.8/10
Facades are second nature to Paul McCartney. A superstar since age 21, McCartney perfected the art of affectation while the Beatles were still touring the globe, and decades of public controversies and tragedies have only hardened his shell. McCartney's gift of glib is so deeply ingrained in his persona that it's disarming to hear him sing "I got crows at my windows/Dogs at my door/I don't think I can take anymore" at the outset of Egypt Station, his 17th solo studio album.
Opinion: Excellent
Q uite why the foremost living author of western popular music still feels he needs to prove himself, 17 solo albums in from The Actual Beatles, is a moot point. Paul McCartney could spend his time lounging about on the supplest of vegan pleather divans, getting wavy on the finest marijuana strains ever crossbred. He could feel satisfied that semi-legalisation - at least for the likely joint pain of a 76-year-old - was nigh, and that his status as the patriarch of western popular culture was secure.
Opinion: Very Good
By this stage, Paul McCartney has nothing to prove. One of the most successful songwriters in history, he's toured the world countless times and won gold discs in almost every country where records are sold. But yet here we are, in 2018, and he's still challenging himself, still pushing himself forward in a way that almost none of his peers would ever dare.
'Egypt Station'
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