PAUL MCCARTNEY, THE BOYS OF DUNGEON LANE

Paul McCartney will turn 84 next month, a fact that I find difficult to reconcile. More than sixty years after Beatlemania and six years removed from his last solo release, McCartney is still writing, recording, and touring at an age when most artists would have long since stepped away. And he is doing it with the same boyish energy, something that was on display recently on Saturday Night Live and The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’s final episode. So here I am writing about McCartney’s 21st solo album.

In recent interviews surrounding The Boys of Dungeon Lane, McCartney has reflected on childhood memories, family, loss, and the people who shaped his life, revisiting the Liverpool streets and experiences that continue to inform his songwriting. On the album, McCartney draws heavily from those memories, building songs around his childhood in Liverpool, his early friendships, family life, and the years before the Beatles changed everything. The album carries a reflective quality without becoming sentimental, pairing familiar McCartney melodies and arrangements with stories that feel more personal than nostalgic. There is an awareness of time throughout the record without a sense of looking backward for its own sake. It is an album I thoroughly enjoyed and further proof that one of music’s greatest songwriters still has plenty in the tank.