Paul McCartney’s publishing company MPL have announced via his official Instagram account that his upcoming solo album ‘McCartney III,’ will have its release date extended due to unexpected delays in its production. The album is now set to release for streaming and physical purchases on the 18th of December, one week later than planned.
According to Rolling Stone, McCartney recorded the album while isolated at home in the U.K. during lockdown, stating that ‘Like his first solo album, in 1970, he played nearly all of the instruments himself, resulting in some of his most wildly ambitious songs in a long time.’ McCartney considers himself lucky to have been isolated in the English countryside, with a studio within easy reach and ‘two other guys that could come in and we’d be very careful and distanced and everything: my engineer Steve, and then my equipment guy Keith.’ The album, he claims, was made during this time, with just these three people.
With fifty years now having passed since the break up of The Beatles, Paul McCartney has shown a real sense of self-sufficiency and a DIY ethos in his approach to the making of this album. In fact he plays almost every instrument recorded for the album at his ‘Rockdown,’ studio in Sussex. Instruments which make their way into McCartney’s hands for this album include a Fender Telecaster from 1954, a five piece Ludwig drum kit featuring a Black Beauty snare, DW piccolo snare and Zildjian cymbols, as well as a ‘Kay M1 upright bass previously owned by Bill Black of Elvis Presley’s original trio.’
Paul McCartney is of course much more fortunate than many musicians for having access to a large studio and a variety of expensive and high quality equipment to create the album which he wanted, whereas those in earlier stages of their career have often found themselves with only their bedroom set ups to work with through a long and difficult lockdown. None-the-less this hasn’t stopped many bands and artists from making the must of their newly found spare time and cracking on with some recording.
Fans may be asking themselves, where can I get hold of the new album as soon as possible when it is released? The answer is simple, the album can either be pre-saved on Spotify or other streaming services, so that it shows up in your library as soon as the release day arrives, or pre-orders can be make with local record stores for a Vinyl or CD copy to be delivered or available to collect when December the 18th finally comes around, just in time for Christmas.
Unfortunately there are currently no gigs planned for Paul McCartney to play in support of his new album at this time, no doubt due at least in part to the ongoing coronavirus crisis in the UK and the fact that McCartney, being a veteran and national treasure of British music is certainly at risk and must be protected.
