Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full

Label: Starcom
Sound/Style: eclectic pop and rock mix

By Steve Morley

UMC.org—Forty years ago, Beatle Paul McCartney mused about his then-distant future in his jolly number "When I’m Sixty-Four:" Will you still need me, will you still feed me when I’m sixty-four?"

Now, at age 64, he’s seen the song’s questions answered, though not always in the kindest of ways. He lost his beloved wife Linda to cancer almost a decade ago, and his second wife, Heather Mills, recently filed for divorce. Millions of fans still attend his concerts and purchase his recordings, though his longtime label Capitol Records only half-heartedly promoted 2005’s Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, a strong return to form that has only sold about a half million copies to date. McCartney retaliated by affiliating with Starbucks, a shrewd marketing move that should guarantee major exposure for his new release, Memory Almost Full. While it lacks some of the peaks of his previous album, Memory is a tuneful, fresh and occasionally surprising effort on which rock’s most celebrated elder tackles the subject of time’s passage ("I hope it isn’t too late/ Searching for the time that has gone so fast/ The time that I thought would last.")

"Ever Present Past" revisits the buoyant and melodic quality of McCartney’s former band Wings, as does the effervescent "See Your Sunshine," which reconfirms his prowess as an inventive bass guitarist as well as his knack for crafting irrepressible pop motifs.

Because the sessions for this album took place both before and after his last one, it’s difficult to interpret the state of McCartney’s now-dissolving marriage through these songs. Some refer to positive aspects of relationship, though even the heartfelt track "Gratitude" can’t cover the pain and confusion in "You Tell Me:" "Were we there?/ Was it real?/ Is it truly how I feel?/ Maybe – you tell me."

"Only Mama Knows" is the most aggressively rocking cut, minus the somber string intro that foreshadows the song’s disturbing theme of infant abandonment. Pouring his outrage into the character of a boy who must find his way alone, McCartney perhaps accesses the pain of losing his own mother as a young teen.

"The End of the End" projects ahead to McCartney’s passing and manages to be neither morose nor overly sentimental. The touching lyric indicates his serenity about a life well lived and his eager anticipation of the afterlife, coupled with comforting thoughts for surviving family members: "At the end of the end/ It’s the start of a journey to a much better place/And a much better place would have to be special/ No reason to cry."

The five-song medley that comprises the record’s latter half finds McCartney reminiscing. Interestingly, his Beatle years receive only a short but sly mention on the autobiographical "That Was Me." The brevity of the reference gives perspective to that relatively small slice of McCartney’s six and a half decades and the wealth of music he’s created without his famous Liverpool mates. McCartney’s dilemma—if you can call it that—is The Beatles’ enduring and expanding legacy, a double-edged sword that keeps his work in demand but forever subject to comparison. On Memory Almost Full, he forges ahead in full, post-Beatle identity, and while his peak years may be behind him, he clearly hasn’t surrendered to yesterday.

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