Paul McCartney’s new studio album, ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’, is out now via MPL/Capitol Records. It’s his first solo album in over 5 years, and by every measure, it’s the most personal thing he’s ever put his name on. Listen here.
The album turns the clock back to post-war Liverpool, to childhood streets, resilient parents, and the early friendship between a young McCartney and two boys named George Harrison and John Lennon. Long before Beatlemania. Long before any of it. This is where the whole story actually starts.
14 songs, written with rare openness, form a collection that’s candid and reflective without being sentimental. McCartney revisits formative years with the kind of honesty that only comes from an artist who’s earned the right to look back. The songs are modest, homespun, and emotionally rich in a way that doesn’t announce itself.
The critical response has been immediate and nearly unanimous. Rolling Stone calls it “a late-career masterpiece.” Variety declares it “McCartney’s best album of the 21st Century.” The Daily Telegraph gives it 5 stars and calls it “a joyous late-career reminder of McCartney’s melodic genius.” The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, MOJO, and the BBC all weigh in with equal enthusiasm.
The Financial Times puts it simply: “I find it impossible to listen to ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’ without feeling moved.” That kind of response doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when an artist makes something true.
‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’ is the sound of one of music’s most culturally significant figures writing without a net, and landing perfectly.
Track Listing:
As You Lie There
Lost Horizon
Days We Left Behind
Ripples in a Pond
Mountain Top
Down South
We Two
Come Inside
Never Know
Home to Us
Life Can Be Hard
First Star of the Night
Salesman Saint
Momma Gets By