Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (CD - 2005)

Personnel: Paul McCartney (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, 12-string guitar, classical guitar, autoharp, cello, melodica, recorder, flugelhorn, grand piano, spinet, electric piano, harmonium, Moog synthesizer, bass guitar, drums, cymbals, maracas, shaker, tambourine, triangle, tubular bells, percussion); Paul McCartney (piano, Wurlitzer piano, glockenspiel); Nigel Godrich (acoustic guitar, piano, loops); Abe Laboriel, Jr. (tambourine, wood block, percussion); Rusty Anderson, Brian Ray (acoustic guitar); Jason Falkner (electric guitar, classical guitar); Millenia Ensemble (strings, brass); Los Angeles Music Players (strings); Pedro Eustache (duduk); James Gadson (drums); Joey Waronker (bass drum, bongos, shaker).

Recording information: Air Studios, London, England; Ocean Way Recording, LA; Rak Studios, London, England.

Photographer: Bill Bernstein.

Arrangers: David Campbell ; Joby Talbot.

That 2005's CHAOS & CREATION IN THE BACKYARD arrived as a dramatic return to form for Paul McCartney is something of an oversimplification. The fact is, dodgy orchestral and electronic side projects aside, solo Macca's only true fallow period was the mid-'80s, and the three albums prior to CHAOS were all solid, not un-Beatlesque affairs. That said, it's impossible to deny that this is one of Paul's finest post-Wings releases. He mines Fabs-friendly melodies and arrangements unabashedly (occasionally with tongue firmly in cheek), and who better to do so?

Part of the reason for the album's resonance is the presence of Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, the first man since George Martin with the gall to make McCartney work for his money. (Paul's basically a one-man band throughout, for the first time since McCARTNEY II.) A deeper reason lies in the obvious emotional depths McCartney plumbs, leaving his trademark happy-face/Silly Love Songs persona far behind and betraying an unprecedented level of melancholy and introspection. Revisionists who claim the spirit of the Beatles died with Mark David Chapman's bullet in 1980 should only wish that, had John Lennon lived, he'd still be making music as aesthetically relevant as this 25 years down the line. minimize