It should be no surprise that the standout moments of Paul McCartney’s jazz standards cover album are the original compositions. Just two features on Kisses on the Bottom, but they’re more than enough to showcase just how strong a writer McCartney remained throughout the 2010s. He followed up this light delight with New just a year later and soon found himself collaborating with everyone from Nirvana to Kanye West and Rihanna. It wasn’t a vintage few years to follow Kisses on the Bottom, but there is a sense that McCartney is reacting to the standards he covers here. If not collaboration with chart-toppers and modern-day legends, then what? Cover albums galore in a similar vein to Bob Dylan? It just doesn’t suit McCartney, whose desire to play the hits leaves no room for any of the songs featured here, bar My Valentine. A nice song indeed, but McCartney dipping into his memories, as he has done for The Boys of Dungeon Lane, is a fascinating listen.
His voice is not built for lounge jazz, but it’s that awkward lead, backed by soft piano notes and plucked double bass, that makes Kisses on the Bottom such a tranquil, kind listen. Opening track, I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, is charming and breaks from McCartney rather quickly to focus on the instrumental talent. Diana Krall is outstanding throughout Kisses on the Bottom, a master of the mood you can aspire to in jazz standards, with a piano as the focus point. Charming work the whole way through is a nice listen, though it hardly ever reaches that point of wanting to return to any of the standards. Home (When Shadows Fall) is beautiful but forgettable. Much of the album is built on the emotional connection listeners have to McCartney, rather than to the music at hand. There’ll be those who have both, but the former wins out and is the key to working through Kisses on the Bottom.
All you need to have for Kisses on the Bottom is a view to having fun. McCartney takes a sparse approach to many of these renditions, and where it works for a standard like The Glory of Love, there are times when it feels like the album is coming to a standstill it may never recover from. Every song here hinges on how big a fan of McCartney’s current voice you are, and those who enjoy the warm tone The Beatles and Wings veteran has will love this. Or, at least, they should, but the standards McCartney has selected are not all that staggering or inspired. My Valentine is a delight of acoustic-plucked memories, a dedication from McCartney to a new lover. It lingers as the best track on the album, not because it’s a McCartney original, but because it’s the strongest instrumental occasion. It’s followed by Always, so subtle it’s silent.
Standards are fine enough in their original form but for those who are utterly desperate for more McCartney material, this will scratch that itch. Kisses on the Bottom is a nice listen, and not much more than that. Standards is as standards does, but McCartney is above those standards. Just a voice cannot elevate this material; it’s nowhere close to as strong as his original material. Telling it may be that My Valentine and Only Our Hearts are far from the peak of McCartney’s powers, Kisses on the Bottom still lingers in the mind. Moments of it keep coming back into mind a little after listening, but they’re hardly going to last as long as these songs themselves have on McCartney’s mind. Nice work all around and it’s great to hear what the veteran songwriter can do with these standards, but he hardly pulls together a lasting impression here.
