Published Sept. 29, 2005, in the Waukesha Freeman

Review by Matthew Webber

Paul McCartney
Chaos and Creation in the Backyard
Capitol

Paul McCartney - bassist, cute one, vegetarian - is a little bit older than the last time we saw him. His hair is thinning. He's one year younger than 64, the age his former band - maybe you've heard of them? - once sang was "wasting away."

Do we still need him, will we still feed him, when he's still on tour next year?

Thanks to a new producer, the answer is yes.

McCartney doesn't look as young in real life as he does on the cover of his new album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard. But his choices of a 1962 cover photo and Radiohead and Beck producer Nigel Godrich are both indications that his energized Super Bowl performance earlier this year was not a one-off Beatles tribute.

Rather, the photo, updated sound and grinning acceptance of his classic material are the first signs McCartney's new album is a "return to form" - a phrase used by rock critics to describe any effort by an aging musician that isn't completely horrible - after decades of embarrassing Michael Jackson duets, synthesized Christmas tunes and 9-11 response songs.

The problem with too much of McCartney's solo output was its slapped-together feel. With the breakup of the Beatles, McCartney lost access to the constructive criticism of John Lennon and the classically trained ear of producer George Martin.

And who else could ever tell McCartney - the author of "Hey Jude," almost the entire B-side of Abbey Road, and so many other musical memories - how to make a song?

Godrich, apparently, had no reservations about reining in the legend's most treacly tendencies. Stripping away any studio sheen and hiring the best backing band available - McCartney himself on almost every instrument - the producer helped McCartney refocus on his strengths: namely, his incomparable gift of songcraft.

The acoustic "Jenny Wren" is a sequel of sorts to "Blackbird." The rollicking album opener "Fine Line" is a piano-based stomper in the mode of "Lady Madonna."

Although the string-arranged "Riding to Vanity Fair" sounds like an outtake from Beck's Sea Change album, it also sounds like vintage McCartney. The track finds our hero playing bass, two types of guitar, toy glockenspiel and Wurlitzer, while singing about a theme - the loss of an old friendship - that isn't silly at all.

A jaded critic would echo the lines, "I think I've heard enough/Of your familiar song." 

But a true fan would be thankful for the chance to sing the following, "When every day was young/The sun would always shine/We sang along ... Believing every line," while believing these lines as well.

While nothing on Chaos approaches the bliss of "She Loves You," nothing on any album has approached it ever since. McCartney, now in his early 60s, may never return to his early '60s form, but this album comes the closest he has come in my short lifetime. McCartney isn't ready to knit sweaters just yet.