Do you remember when Panic at the Disco decided to shed
their emo roots and make music that ripped off was inspired by the Kinks
and the Beatles? No? That’s definitely for the best, but since my local
supermarket played a few of those songs every single day for about two years I
can never forget that terrible chapter in a terrible band’s history.
Unfortunately, all of those memories came back to the
surface when I heard “New,” the new single from Paul McCartney’s upcoming album
of the same name. The Mark Ronson production is clearly trying to ape the
brighter tracks on Revolver and the
less psychedelic ones on Sgt. Pepper’s
Lonely Hearts Club Band, but the song achieves the same quality as Panic at
the Disco’s ill-advised move into nostalgia. Not that I would expect Paul
McCartney to make thoroughly modern sounding music; at 71, he’s not going to be
on the cutting edge of anything. His last album of original music, 2007’s Memory Almost Full, had some pretty good
tunes on it, so there was hope that he still had some good music in him. Yet
considering how spotty his solo career has been, from the low points of most of
the Wings catalog to his Kisses on the
Bottom covers album from last year, I really should know better than to get
too excited about a latter-day Paul McCartney record.
But he’s still Paul McCartney, and when an artist of his
caliber completely shifts into autopilot and begins putting out assembly line
facsimiles of his classic work and expects people to get excited then it’s time
to give up on that artist.
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