Album review: McCartney III: Imagined uses top-class collaborators to bridge the generation gap

Paul McCartney has enlisted the likes of Phoebe Bridgers, Damon Albarn and Massive Attack to reinterpret his songs 

McCartney III features a motley crew, some of whom have remained faithful to Paul McCartney's originals, while others have pushed the boat a bit more. 

There have been brasher and more melodramatic lockdown records than Paul McCartney’s McCartney III. Yet last year’s third in his trilogy of introspective and experimental “McCartney” albums confirmed that the former Beatle still had a keen ear for a heartbreaking melody and a facility for lyrics that walked the line between touching and cheesy.

Just a few months on, the LP has been ambitiously recontextualised by a hand-picked crew of friends and artists McCartney has admired from afar. It’s quite a line-up, encompassing indie royalty St Vincent and Phoebe Bridgers and veterans Beck, Damon Albarn and Massive Attack’s 3D.

The collaborators can be divided between those who have remained faithful to the original songs and confined themselves to tinkering at the edges, and those who have knocked the entire edifice down and rebuilt it from the ground up.

Among those in the former camp is St Vincent’s Annie Clark. McCartney’s voice interweaves with Clark’s on Women and Wives – a trippy piece that leans into his under-appreciated talent for psychedelia. With Seize the Day Bridgers, by contrast, essentially delivers a cover version, her vocals front-and-centre as Macca croons in the background.

The real surprises come when McCartney looks outside rock’n'roll. An untethered take on Deep Down by Blood Orange’s Dev Hynes ask the listener to consider how The Beatles might have sounded with Frank Ocean as lead singer. Meanwhile, Anderson Paak injects a giddy insouciance to When Winter Comes, which emerges bathed in sunshine.

Elsewhere, the guests remake McCartney in their own image. Damon Albarn turns Long Tailed Winter Bird into a woozy Gorillaz tune. And 3D’s tilt at Deep Deep Feeling transforms it into a brooding Massive Attack pastiche.

There is a long and inglorious history of remix LPs as lazy cash-ins. McCartney III: Imagined is more than just a companion record however. It stands on its own as a compelling coming together of the pop generations, as one of the greatest writers of his era melds minds with the artists that have followed in his footsteps.