Nous vous livrons ci-dessous le communiqué de presse relatif à la publication du nouvel album de Paul McCartney, »Memory Almost Full », rédigé par Paul McCartney lui même.
{I actually began with the work on this new album, « Memory Almost Full, » before my last album « Chaos and Creation in The Backyard » (released in September 2005). The first recordings took place in the autumn of 2003 at Abbey Road with my band and David Kahne as producer. I was already in the middle of it, when I began to talk with Nigel Godrich about a completely new project – this then became « Chaos and Creation in the Backyard ». When I was finished working on « Chaos » and had received a Grammy nomination (2006) for it, I remembered, there was still this other album, which I wanted to absolutely finish.
Thus, I got the first recordings and listened to them again, in order to see whether they still pleased me – and actually, I found them wonderful. At first I just listenend to them and asked myself, « OK, I like this song, what can be improved? » It was usually only one little thing, i.e., a drum beat, so I re-recorded the drums and decided whether I liked that better. Slowly I developed the album. I listened to each song individually and made the changes which appeared important to me. Gradually everything developed.
Without me really trying, the album got its own theme, like a chord, which held everything together. Now it consists of half of the old recordings of 2003 and half of the completely new sounds.
In some places it is a very personal album with many retrospectives, also with many memories, for example memories of my childhood, of Liverpool, and of past summer days. The album is invoking, emotional and rocks, but I cannot summarize it in one sentence.
It ends in a medley, consisting of five songs, which are consciously retrospective. At first I thought it’s because I had arrived now at such a point in my life – however, then I remembered my songs with John, many of which were retrospective, too. It is like « Penny Lane or « Eleanor Rigby, » I still do the same tricks!
Naturally, people will interpret my songs differently, but it was always like that. One thing is simple, I love to write songs, therefore I write and write. I never arrive at a point where I decide to write about concrete topics. But inevitably, my thoughts are in what I do.
The first song on the album is ‘Dance Tonight’. I bought myself a mandoline recently and played around on it until I suddenly had the foundation-stone of this title. Some weeks ago we made the video for it, which was a lot of fun. The director is Michael Gondry (Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind). Also, Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook are in the video. I won’t disclose the story here. You must watch it yourselves. We had a lot of fun doing it!
The title of the album occurred to me only after everything was finished. That is normal for me, with exception of Sgt. Peppers perhaps. Otherwise I cannot remember an album with the Beatles, Wings or solo, where I thought first about a title and a concept. I though about what could summarize my new tracks, and came up with « Memory Almost Full, » a sentence which describes the modern life in my eyes – in today’s time our brains can be overloaded fast. When I discussed the idea with some friends, nearly everyone had their own interpretation, but they all thought it was great. This feedback helped me to definitely decide on the title.
Having finished the album, I thought about the cover. I wanted the CD to become a desired object, something which I would take from the shelf myself, something which makes people curious. I hope, our result reflects that.
The cover is an etching of a good friend, Humphrey Ocean. As with the lyrics, I am very curious how people will interpret it!
For the moment I’m on promotion tours, getting the first feedbacks to my album and I can say, so far, so goodl! It is very interesting to hear what others think about my songs, how they interpret them and how they feel about them. I also talk about my album and enjoy my own discovery process. It was fun for me to finish this album with David Kahne and I am proud of all the songs. I hope that this joy will pass over to all who will listen to it.
All the best,
Paul McCartney}
