New McCartney Album Inspired By Sgt. Pepper – New Single Out Now

The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Band has been of a major influence on the creation of Paul McCartney's new upcoming album, Egypt Station. That was because the fiftieth anniversary of the legendary LP coincided with the recordings of his latest work, says McCartney in an exclusive interview with music magazine DIY: 

"I remember going up to the studio a couple of times and saying, oh well I was listening to this programme last night and I thought on ‘Penny Lane’ it was just one piano that I played but it turns out it’s eight! We were goofing around on that, and it inspires you and makes you think you can go anywhere. It’s still gonna sound like a piano, but sonically you can play with it. ‘…Pepper’ was a big influence."



Of the forthcoming album’s enigmatic title, Paul says on his website, “I liked the words ‘Egypt Station.’ It reminded me of the ‘album’ albums we used to make... 'Egypt Station' starts off at the station on the first song and then each song is like a different station. So it gave us some idea to base all the songs around that. I think of it as a dream location that the music emanates from.”

According to the official press release, Egypt Station’s 14 songs “combine to convey a unique travelogue vibe. Between the opening and closing instrumentals 'Station I' and 'Station II', each song finds Paul capturing a place or moment before transporting the listener seamlessly to the next destination. Stops along the way include an acoustic meditation on present day contentedness ('Happy With You'), a timeless anthem that would fit on virtually any album of any McCartney era ('People Want Peace'), and an epic multi-movement closer clocking in at seven minutes with a song suite structure harkening back to the days of Paul’s previous combos ('Despite Repeated Warnings'). The result is a kaleidoscopic journey through myriad musical locales and eras, yet firmly rooted in the here and now - with Paul’s singular unmistakable melodic and lyrical sensibility serving as a guide.”




The album was recorded last year in Los Angeles, London and Paul’s private studio in Sussex, and produced by Greg Kurstin (Adele, Beck, Foo Fighters) except for one track. The song ‘Fuh You’ is an unexpected one-song production cameo from OneRepublic’s Ryan Tedder. 

Paul to DIY: “There’s always a little thing that sparks these things off. It’s not like I’m going around, checking the internet for who to work with next. There’s always a little occurrence. So I’d been working with Greg [Kurstin] who’s the main producer. I had a couple of weeks off but I was itching to keep going. My manager said, why don’t you try someone else? I liked the idea of Ryan and I listened to [Beyoncé’s] ‘Halo’ that he was part of. (…) So out of all the producers that were suggested, I liked Ryan, rung him up and we chatted. He said, ‘What do you hope to get [out of this]?’. I was like, oh I don’t know. And then I thought, come on Paul, don’t be so shy. So I said, ‘A hit?’ And he was like ‘Yeah! Now you’re talking my language! The world loves a hit!’ So that was our brief. To do something commercial. In a week, we ended up with three songs and one of them was ‘Fuh You’, which is on the album."

The release date is set for September 7, which is preceded today by a double A-sided single with two tracks taken from the album: the ballad 'I Don’t Know' and the raucous stomper 'Come On To Me'.

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André Homan

André Homan is a Dutch writer and journalist.

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