McCartney's charming way with melody is still matchless | The Guardian - newspaper

If the music that made you legendary was written and recorded long ago - and is highly unlikely to be displaced in the public’s affections by anything you do now - it’s good to have something that suggests a sense of purpose. An angle is clearly something that occurred to Paul McCartney. From its title referencing a road in the suburb of Liverpool where he spent his early childhood, his 27th studio album has been presented as a nostalgic look back at what you might call his pre-Fab years. The idea has certainly generated excitement and not a little emotion on the part of fans. McCartney seems to have spent the last few years crossing the Ts and dotting the Is on various aspects of his past: reworking the footage of the Let It Be recording sessions to cast it in a more positive light; completing the one song left unfinished during the mid-90s reunion of the surviving Beatles; releasing a documentary designed to remind the public that, for all the critical opprobrium thrown their way, Wings were huge in the 1970s. A burst of sentimental reminiscence adds to the faint but detectable sense that his career is drawing to a close.