Who would've thought the new Paul McCartney album would be something worthwhile? After putting out that song "Freedom" about 9/11, I don't think anyone imagined that Sir Paul would team up with Radiohead and Beck producer Nigel Godrich to produce Beatles-quality work. Though not very close to Beatles quality, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard has a handful of songs that can be entered into the McCartney cannon, while the other handful sounds exactly like the weird mix of atmospheric overproduction and romantic ditties you would expect.
The disc starts off with the first single "A Fine Line," an upbeat song to the tune of the fast part of "Live and Let Die." It's very interesting to see how the record sounds like Paul McCartney and the backup band from "Sea Change" all at once. The real highlight of the beginning of the album is "Jenny Wren." It's a slow Beatlesesque song, like an acoustic "Eleanor Rigby." Note that when I say Beatlesesque I really mean that this song is as good as any Beatles song ever written. Yes, that is a big statement, but it's true. "A Certain Softness" has a Latin flavor with a classic Paul melody. "Friends to Go" sounds like an early Beatles classic but with twisting chord changes and updated production. "Too Much Rain" evokes the best ballads of McCartney's solo years.
While it is true that there are plenty of valid Beatles references on this record, there are some quite obvious attempts at superficially recalling Beatles nostalgia. The keyboard part from "English Tea" sounds like the beginning of "For No One," with even the same first two chords. The beginning of the album has these funny voices and then Paul counting off, "Uh, 1, 2, 3" which is meant to recall "Sgt. Pepper's." But it didn't need these vague shout-outs to remind us that this is Paul McCartney, the bass player of the Beatles; some of the songs do this well enough themselves.
