Paul McCartney’s McCartney III embodies the essence of music, even if it’s one of his lesser albums 

Creativity in any field, let alone music, should be the pursuit of personal satisfaction. The hope any artist worth their weight should have is in being satisfied with the work at hand. A listener agreeing with or enjoying the range offered on the record is secondary. In an ideal world, it would be. Few musicians can say they release music without care for the audience. That much is earned over decades, establishing yourself not just as a reliable creative but as one whose profits can afford artistic risk. Paul McCartney could, and has, released a series of challenging and experimental albums, which are propped up by his pop efforts in the 1980s. From a classical music album with Standing Stone to cover songs on Run Devil Run, McCartney has pursued not what the audience expects, but what he feels moved by. McCartney III is a formidable example of that, even if the result is not all that great. 

McCartney himself said this is an album where making “stuff I fancied doing” is the aim. There was no suggestion of a new album, and it does have the charm of sounding like McCartney is tinkering in the archives. A song as old as 1992, When Winter Comes, features, as do pieces recorded across 2016 and 2018. It not only means The Beatles’ producer George Martin gets a credit, but that McCartney is free of expectation. It’s not a fully-fledged album and concept like Egypt Station, but a fooling around which made McCartney and McCartney II so charming. A roll of the dice, if you like, as brought on by the album cover. There’s a fine line linking Chaos and Creation in the Backyard and McCartney III. Both albums were made with McCartney on all the instruments and minimal input from anyone else. But the former had Nigel Godrich keeping it all together.   

McCartney III does not have that. It’s as clear a vision of what McCartney wants to do with scraps of his work. It’s far from his best, though nothing stands out as particularly bad. Everything featured is nice enough, from the instrumental punch of opening song Long Tailed Winter Bird, to the closing track, the flying animal-featuring Winter Bird / When Winter Comes. At the end of it all, as long as an artist is creating with themselves in mind as the audience, then we are on the right track. Not everyone can say, truthfully, they are. Be it a diary documentary or just an interest of the times, an album should represent the artist and their true self, or a well-made story they had in mind, from the time of release. McCartney III does that.  

There’s nothing to grab a listener, not compared to Ram or Egypt Station, but there is enough of a throughline for McCartney and those sticking around to follow. That’s all an album needs. It’s up to the listener to connect with it, not the artist. An artist can put those pieces together in whichever order is satisfactory to them. It’s up to the listener to work out why they like or dislike a piece. McCartney III is not the only embodiment of this, but the album is a blueprint for those creatives with the luxury of making work without expectation. McCartney III is an album made because a music veteran fancied piecing together some more works. It’s the creative spur which is on display here. You do not need to connect with it to appreciate it.  

Those who say McCartney III is a tame and loose release would be correct. Those considering it a beautiful swan song to relationships kindled in studios across the decades are also correct. It’s the existence of both states which is possible on a project where true passion is seen. McCartney III offers a listener whatever they want because it promises them nothing at all. You can head into this as an easy-listening escape and be dissatisfied, or you can expect a masterclass and be surprised. It’s a superfluous treat. It may be a lesser album, but it is filled with genuine spirit, a feeling found in every album from McCartney. Morose musings around every corner and plenty of lessons to learn from for those willing to hear them out.  

Women and Wives is the perfect example. It provides us a thematic staple of McCartney’s, that of domesticity and satisfaction with home life, but also a moment of contemplation. It’s not just a contemplation from the former Wings frontman, but the person listening, should they connect with it. Every album is built on the hope you connect with it, either fundamentally or objectively, but few can connect with themselves. It’s perhaps time to shift the narrative on an artist offering us work. They are offering themselves a reminder, or a write-up, of their lives. It just so happens they are willing to share it with us. McCartney III could have been left in the vault, and the result would have been almost the same. Almost, that is, because the missing piece is its crucial one. Release, be it to the public or a private audience, is the warmth artists seek.  

Satisfaction or concurrence with the work is what they are seeking. Validation, to a degree, that their writing or instrumental work is a true reflection of themselves and the world around them. The only way to see is to release, and so we are spoilt for choice, every day of our lives, by hundreds of thousands of albums. Millions, most likely. We will never hear all of them, but McCartney III is a beautiful example of why we should embrace that essence of creativity. Even if it is far from the best in store for the discography, it’s a truth expanding across forty minutes. Deep Deep Feeling and The Kiss of Venus work as contemplations on a decades-long career. For those who pick up on those details, then McCartney III will work best for you. It’s about embracing the artist’s decisions in the studio, whether we understand the method and meaning or not.  

McCartney III is a somewhat dark album at times. Deep Deep Feeling features the “joy of giving,” that call and response between an artist and listener, with sinister instrumentals swelling. An eight-minute powerhouse of a song, the love from McCartney to a nondescript person, is a staggering moment. Embrace that essence of music. Only McCartney and a select few know the subject of Deep Deep Feeling, but it’s the sparkling moment of the album because of the intrigue. It’s the deeper feeling behind it which keeps it, and much of McCartney III on your mind, even if it is far from his best work. Only the best can keep an album of interest only to them in the minds and conversations of others. That’s what all the greats can do, and what McCartney managed once more with McCartney III.