Paul McCartney has shared a second album trailer for his upcoming release. The new solo album, with the title officially McCartney III, arrives December 18. (On November 19, the legend’s social media platforms noted “unforeseeable production delays” have caused the album to move from its original Dec. 11 date.) McCartney formally announced the album on October 21, with the first official trailer, after teasing it briefly. (Watch both trailers below.)
Classic rock forums and Beatles bloggers had been discussing it in earnest for weeks and on October 19 McCartney’s Facebook page released the first teaser graphic. The new album, described as “an eclectic collection of spontaneous songs” comes decades after the first two in the series: 1970’s McCartney (which essentially announced the Beatles’ breakup) and McCartney II, which arrived ten years later in 1980. Both of those releases are true solo efforts in that McCartney performed all the instruments himself (with occasional vocal assistance from his wife, Linda).
Watch Official Album Trailer #1, which includes an excerpt from the song, “The Kiss of Venus,” from McCartney III
The new album comes via his deal with Capitol Records. It’s available for pre-order on vinyl in the U.S. here and CD here.
Watch the album’s first official trailer
With extra time on his hands due to the pandemic, Sir Paul is rumored to have recorded as many as 25 tracks.
In keeping with McCartney & McCartney II’s photography by Linda McCartney, the principal photos for III were shot by Paul’s daughter Mary McCartney—with additional photography by Paul’s nephew Sonny McCartney as well as photos Paul took on his phone (it’s a family affair). The cover art and typography is by celebrated American artist Ed Ruscha.
McCartney playing an array of vintage instruments: Bill Black’s upright bass, a 5-piece Ludwig drum kit and a 1954 Fender Telecaster (Photos: © Mary McCartney)
From the album’s Oct. 21 announcement: Recorded earlier this year in Sussex, McCartney III is mostly built from live takes of Paul on vocals and guitar or piano, overdubbing his bass playing, drumming, etc. atop that foundation. The process first sparked when Paul returned to an unreleased track from the early 90s, “When Winter Comes” co-produced by George Martin). Paul crafted a new passage for the song, giving rise to album opener “‘Long Tailed Winter Bird”—while “When Winter Comes,” featuring its 2200 intro, “Winter Bird,” became the new album’s grand finale.
Speaking about III, McCartney said,” I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day. I had to do a little bit of work on some film music and that turned into the opening track and then when it was done I thought what will I do next? I had some stuff I’d worked on over the years but sometimes time would run out and it would be left half-finished so I started thinking about what I had. Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up, 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 fancie doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album.”
More substantive “clues” about the release abound. A website, McCartneyiii.com, has been created and internet sleuths have discovered that it was registered by a company which has registered other McCartney sites for MPL Communications, which manages his business affairs. As of October 19, the website’s only graphic shows a “303 Error,” a HTTP code that actually exists (though most internet readers generally encounter the more common 404 error code). Moreover, the links for “Terms,” “Privacy,” and so on, usually found in mice type at the bottom of a website’s home page, take visitors to pages from Universal Music Group, owner of Capitol Records.
At around 10:30 p.m. ET on Oct. 19, McCartney tweeted a photo.
🎲🎲🎲 pic.twitter.com/LtpnCsZBWw
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) October 20, 2020
Others followed on Oct. 20.
🎲🎲🎲 pic.twitter.com/Q8t4czk84N
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) October 20, 2020
🎲🎲🎲 pic.twitter.com/fMUHjfApLr
— Paul McCartney (@PaulMcCartney) October 20, 2020
Some McCartney fans have reported receiving a promotional item of a set of three special dice that have only three dots on them. (It appears that they were randomly selected from those that have ordered his various boxed sets directly from his website.)
Just been making some enquiries about how I become an official member of the McCartney/MPL/Apple stable of critics & journalists.
Wish me luck!
(Btw, how FAB are these dice?)#PaulMcCartney#McCartneyIII #McCartney3#PaulMcCartneyPodcast pic.twitter.com/be92WqWMBP
— PaulMcCartneyPodcast (@McCartneyPod) October 19, 2020
From the album’s listing on Amazon: Paul McCartney will release McCartney III on December 11. Paul hadn’t planned to release an album in 2020, but in the isolation of “Rockdown,” he found himself fleshing out some existing musical sketches and creating new ones. Before long an eclectic collection of spontaneous songs would become McCartney III: a stripped, self-produced solo work marking the opening of a new decade. Built mostly from live takes of Paul on vocals & guitar/piano, overdubbing bass, drums, etc. atop this foundation.
McCartney III will be his first album since 2018’s Egypt Station. That title received an extra long teaser campaign which included many surprise club dates. The legend, who turned 78 on June 18, 2020, had a European concert tour planned for 2020. It was canceled due to the ongoing pandemic.
Related: Our Album Rewind of 1970’s McCartney
2 Comments so far
Jump into a conversationThis is very good news. I am buying the new CD no matter what -just hoping Paul will release his very “Elusive Hot Hitz and Kold Kutz album which was originally intended for a 1979 issue but never materialized. Also noteworthy is an album of McCartney’s Love songs, sort of a two CD set from 1970 to 1990. These compilations, Ideas could further boost his Record catalogue. To date,Paul McCartney already has a total of 37 Albums. Enjoy!!! MIKE
Just received the dice by UPS. Don’t know why, but it’s all good!