About this episode

The episode discusses Paul McCartney's new album and its connections to his early life and Beatles history.

Boys of Dungeon Lane , McCartney's collaboration with producer Andrew Watt, arrived when McCartney was 83 and and he came out swinging: the opening track greets listeners with a dissonant, unresolved guitar chord that sets the album's tone. Harmonic instability runs through the entire record: chromatic mediants, deceptive cadences, and persistent pedal tones prevent even the most nostalgic songs from settling into comfort. The album's lyrics focus on McCartney's pre-Beatles Liverpool youth, territory unfamiliar even to long-time fans. The songs pay deliberate sonic tribute to specific Beatles recordings: Mellotron strings echoing "Strawberry Fields Forever," a backwards laugh tape loop answering "Tomorrow Never Knows," a first-ever McCartney/Starr vocal duet so close in timbre the two voices are nearly indistinguishable. Songs discussed: Paul McCartney – "Mull of Kintyre" Paul McCartney – "As You Lie There" The Beatles – "Blackbird" The Beatles – "Helter Skelter" The Beatles – "You Never Give Me Your Money" Paul McCartney – "Uncle Albert / Admiral Halsey" Paul McCartney – "Band on the Run" Paul McCartney – "Live and Let Die" Paul McCartney – "Mountaintop" The Beatles – "Being for…

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