McCartney Looks to but Doesn't Rely on Past for "Chaos"

By Ian Rice Arts and Lifestyle Editor

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The cover of Paul McCartney's latest release, Chaos and Creation In the Backyard, is a picture of the former Beatle playing guitar in a typically English back garden. The McCartney in the picture is clearly very young, looking just as he did as his original band from Liverpool was about to take over the world with thier fresh and irreverent musical style. There is no title, nor mention of the legendary artist's name. It's an image of McCartney before all the hits, all the controversy, all the infighting, all the pretense. It's Paul before a good majority of the things that made him Sir McCartney were even close to happening. 

One listen to Chaos and Creation in the Backyard explains the choice for the aformentioned cover art. Over the course of thirteen tracks, McCartney revisits his past and comes up a winner every time. But make no mistake: McCartney is not simply copying his past successes to ensure himself a hit record. Instead, McCartney is going back to the pure and innocent days of his past to put out an album that is just those things: pure and innocent. It seems that McCartney wants listeners to judge his record as simply an artist's recording, not the next big thing from a rock and roll icon. And despite how difficult that task would seem to be, McCartney manages to pull it off quite well. 

Chaos and Creation seems to rely on slower, more emotional piano-based tunes to form its foundations. There are the occasional acoustic, jangly flourishes (such as the brilliant "Jenny Wren," which could have easily been at home on McCartney's 1971 masterpiece, Ram), but the majority of the tracks focus on surprisingly intimate and poignantly touching ballads. The most outstanding of said tracks is "Too Much Rain," a nice slow burn of a song that beautifully marries acoustic guitar and piano into a brilliant melody. Never once does McCartney slip into formula or into the stifling criteria that has boxed him in on previous efforts and it does wonders for Chaos and Creation in the process. 

During the moments that McCartney does call back to his roots for a touch of color, he does it with such subtlety that the song is over before you figure out where its influences lie. This is clear particularly on the album's opener, "Fine Line," which incorporates just enough of "Ob La Di, Ob La Da" to make the track pleasantly familiar yet miles away from being a cheap ripoff. A similar sentiment goes for "Friends to Go," whose upbeat acoustic happiness recalls one of McCartney's biggest influences, the late Buddy Holly. But again, McCartney does not steal...he merely remembers, for both his benefit and yours. 

Chaos and Creation In the Backyard will undoubtely get the accolades it deserves, given its creator and his stature in the music world. But unlike some of McCartney more recent previous releases, Chaos and Creation actually deserves the praise. There will be naysayers who simply can't let go of their love for the Beatles or Wings to give this album a chance, not to mention an entire age bracket that has taken to writing off legends such as McCartney as old and past it. But let it be said that McCartney, even having just passed sixty years old, is neither of the aforementioned terms and his new recording is proof positive of that.