Paul McCartney has finalized the track list for his next studio album, "Memory Almost Full," Billboard.com can reveal. The 13-track set is due June 5 in North America via Starbucks' new Hear Music label and will also be the first McCartney album to ever be available digitally. The video for first single "Dance Tonight" was directed by Michel Gondry and stars Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook.
McCartney actually started working on the material with his touring band and producer David Kahne before he began his 2005 release "Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard" with producer Nigel Godrich.
After finishing the "Chaos" promotional cycle, which included a sold-out tour, he returned to the prior recordings. "All I did at first was just listen to a couple of things and then I began to think, 'OK, I like that track -- now, what is wrong with it?,'" he says. "And it might be something like a drum sound, so then I would re-drum and see where we would get to."
"In places it's a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective, drawing from memory, like memories from being a kid, from Liverpool and from summers gone," he continues. "The album is evocative, emotional, rocking, but I can't really sum it up in one sentence."
"Memory Almost Full" concludes with a five-song medley end "and that was purposefully retrospective," McCartney says. "I thought this might be because I'm at this point in my life, but then I think about the times I was writing with John (Lennon) and a lot of that was also looking back. It's like me with 'Penny Lane' and 'Eleanor Rigby' -- I'm still up to the same tricks!"
McCartney played most of the instruments on the project, his 21st solo album, although bandmates Paul "Wix" Wickens (keyboards), Rusty Anderson (guitar), Brian Ray (bass) and Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums) contributed to six songs.
The Beatle great has yet to announce whether he will tour in support of "Memory Almost Full."
Here is the track list for "Memory Almost Full":
"Dance Tonight"
"Ever Present Past"
"See Your Sunshine"
"Only Mama Knows"
"You Tell Me"
"Mister Bellamy"
"Gratitude"
"Vintage Clothes"
"That Was Me"
"Feet In The Clouds"
"House Of Wax"
"End of the End"
"Nod Your Head"
McCartney actually started working on the material with his touring band and producer David Kahne before he began his 2005 release "Chaos and Creation in the Back Yard" with producer Nigel Godrich.
After finishing the "Chaos" promotional cycle, which included a sold-out tour, he returned to the prior recordings. "All I did at first was just listen to a couple of things and then I began to think, 'OK, I like that track -- now, what is wrong with it?,'" he says. "And it might be something like a drum sound, so then I would re-drum and see where we would get to."
"In places it's a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective, drawing from memory, like memories from being a kid, from Liverpool and from summers gone," he continues. "The album is evocative, emotional, rocking, but I can't really sum it up in one sentence."
"Memory Almost Full" concludes with a five-song medley end "and that was purposefully retrospective," McCartney says. "I thought this might be because I'm at this point in my life, but then I think about the times I was writing with John (Lennon) and a lot of that was also looking back. It's like me with 'Penny Lane' and 'Eleanor Rigby' -- I'm still up to the same tricks!"
McCartney played most of the instruments on the project, his 21st solo album, although bandmates Paul "Wix" Wickens (keyboards), Rusty Anderson (guitar), Brian Ray (bass) and Abe Laboriel Jr. (drums) contributed to six songs.
The Beatle great has yet to announce whether he will tour in support of "Memory Almost Full."
Here is the track list for "Memory Almost Full":
"Dance Tonight"
"Ever Present Past"
"See Your Sunshine"
"Only Mama Knows"
"You Tell Me"
"Mister Bellamy"
"Gratitude"
"Vintage Clothes"
"That Was Me"
"Feet In The Clouds"
"House Of Wax"
"End of the End"
"Nod Your Head"
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