LIVERPOOL  –  Paul McCartney has announced his first new album in six years, described as a “collection of revealing glimpses” into “never-before shared” memories. The Boys Of Dungeon Lane was inspired by his childhood in post-war Liverpool, and named after a road in Speke that leads to the Mersey shore, where the young McCartney would spend afternoons bird-watching. The first single, Days We Left Behind, premiered on BBC Radio Merseyside, and finds the singer in a wistful, nostalgic mood. Over a simple acoustic backing, he reminisces about “smokey bars and cheap guitars”, observing that while Liverpool is always changing, “nothing can erase the days we left behind”. Singing in a delicate falsetto, his voice conveys some of the frailty of age, lending the song a powerful emotional punch. Then, in the middle eight, he offers an intimate reflection on the beginnings of the Beatles, at his childhood home in Liverpool. “We met on Forthlin Road / And wrote a secret code / Never to be spoken.” “This is very much a memory song for me,” said the 83-year-old in a press release announcing his new album. “I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else?”  Expanding on the lyrics, he adds: “It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool… We didn’t have much at all but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.” The Boys Of Dungeon Lane will be the star’s 19th solo album, in a recording career that spans 63 years and changed the sound of rock and roll forever. His last album, 2020’s McCartney III, was primarily recorded alone in lockdown (he called it “rockdown”) with the star playing nearly all the instruments and handling all the production. By contrast, The Boys of Dungeon Lane was created with US producer Andrew Watt, who has a track record of coaxing vibrant and fiery material out of veteran performers like Ozzy Osbourne and The Rolling Stones.

In fact, it was McCartney who introduced Watt to the Stones ahead of their 2023 comeback album Hackney Diamonds. At the time, he was already working on new material with the producer.