Paul McCartney / McCartney III: official details of Paul’s new solo album

“A stripped, self-produced solo work marking the opening of a new decade”

Paul McCartney will release McCartney III, a new solo album, in December.

Paul’s isolation in lockdown (or what he calls ‘Rockdown’) encouraged him to get on with working on new music as he fleshed out some existing musical sketches and created new ones.

The album is described as a “stripped, self-produced solo work marking the opening of a new decade” and was built mostly from live takes of Paul on vocals and guitar/piano, with him overdubbing bass, drums, etc. on top of this foundation.

The label blurb tells us that “McCartney III spans a vast and intimate range of modes and moods, from soul searching to wistful, from playful to raucous and all points between” and informs us that Paul has captured this audio with some of the same gear from his ‘Rude Studio’ used as far back as 1971 Wings sessions. Instruments used include Bill Black’s double bass (bought for him by Linda many years ago), alongside Paul’s own Hofner bass, and a mellotron from Abbey Road Studios used on Beatles recordings.

Click image to enlarge. Photo credit: Mary McCartney/MPL Communications

McCartney III will be available as a single black vinyl LP in a gatefold sleeve with a printed inner sleeve and there are a few coloured vinyl editions in various retailers but the SDE shop is stocking a special indies-only white vinyl limited edition. Of course, there is a CD version too, and Target in the USA have a CD with exclusive artwork – although I don’t think it’s as nice (the dice is green). Target have a green vinyl too.

A special 333 limited vinyl edition – limited to 333 copies and pressed on ‘yellow-with-black-dots’ vinyl, and created using 33 recycled vinyl copies of McCartney and McCartney II – was available at Third Man Records for a blink of an eye, but has now sold out!

McCartney III will be released on 18 December 2020 (was 11 December).

Compare prices and pre-order

Paul McCartney

McCartney III - vinyl LP

Shop Price gbp Stock Amazon uk   26.53 Order Amazon de   26.99 Order Amazon usa   21.99 Order Amazon fr   30.6 Order Amazon it   18.75 Order Amazon es   22.45 Order Amazon ca   41.01 Order JPC de   29.99 Order FNAC fr   44.34 Pre-Order Rough Trade uk   33.00 limited white vinyl Rough Trade usa   32.99 order

Currency: GBP USD EUR CAD AUD JPY

Compare prices and pre-order

Paul McCartney

McCartney III - CD edition

Shop Price gbp Stock Amazon uk   3.33 Order Amazon de   3.86 Order Amazon usa   3.9 Order Amazon fr   4.86 Order Amazon it   4.81 Order Amazon es   4.08 Order Amazon ca   7.91 Order JPC de   7.99 Order FNAC fr   18.99 Pre-Order Rough Trade uk   15.99 order Rough Trade usa   16.99 pre-order

Currency: GBP USD EUR CAD AUD JPY

1. Long Tailed Winter Bird (5.17)
2. Find My Way (3.55)
3. Pretty Boys (3.01)
4. Women and Wives (2.53)
5. Lavatory Lil (2.23)
6. Deep Deep Feeling (8.27)
7. Slidin’ (3.25)
8. The Kiss of Venus (3.09)
9. Seize The Day (3.23)
10. Deep Down (5.55)
11. Winter Bird/When Winter Comes (3.13)