{"id":698751,"date":"2026-05-28T06:11:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:11:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/698751\/"},"modified":"2026-05-28T06:11:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T06:11:18","slug":"paul-mccartney-the-boys-of-dungeon-lane-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/698751\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul McCartney: The Boys Of Dungeon Lane album review"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

It hardly needs saying, but let\u2019s say it anyway: Paul McCartney<\/a> owes nobody anything. It\u2019s difficult to name anyone else, alive or dead, who has contributed more to collective human happiness. With that in mind, you can\u2019t help rooting for him, willing him on to produce a late-period masterpiece because you know he has it in him. Sadly, while The Boys Of Dungeon Lane certainly has its moments, it is not quite that record.<\/p>\n

First single Days We Left Behind boded well. A gentle ode to early times with John Lennon<\/a>, it suits the torn and frayed side of McCartney\u2019s voice perfectly. There\u2019s also a very moving tribute to his parents\u2019 marriage in the closing Momma Gets By with a simple but beautifully direct chorus of \u2018She loves him\u2019 set against swelling strings. Salesman Saint, also about his parents\u2019 lives, has a lot going for it, too, with a lyric about getting on with things, and a horn arrangement that wouldn\u2019t have shamed Glenn Miller. We Two has a pleasing lilt and finds McCartney\u2019s immortal melodic gifts come into focus for that dreamed-of-you-chorus.<\/p>\n

Paul McCartney \u2013 The Boys of Dungeon Lane (Official Album Trailer) – YouTube
\n\"Paul<\/p>\n

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\n<\/p>\n

The problem elsewhere is that, on the whole, the songs just aren\u2019t memorable enough. It\u2019s all perfectly pleasant, and far from terrible, but the much-heralded Paul \u2019n\u2019 Ringo duet Home To Us is an occasion that deserves a better tune. The same applies to the Fool On The Hill flutes on Never Know. Nice to hear them, but they\u2019d benefit from a more robust setting.<\/p>\n

Opening stalker anthem As You Lie There begins interestingly, with McCartney giving it a bit of spoken-word about a woman he saw once who he hopes is thinking about him, but loses something when it heads up-tempo \u2013 a move that also mars Lost Horizon and Come Inside. Again, McCartney is entitled to have a bit of a rock out if he fancies it, but he sounds more at home on lilting tracks like Life Can Be Hard or First Star Of The Night.<\/p>\n

Paul McCartney – Days We Left Behind (Saturday Night Live\/2026) – YouTube
\n\"Paul<\/p>\n

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Perhaps the shortcomings are best exemplified by Down South. Another tale from Macca\u2019s youth where he and a pal \u2013 George, apparently \u2013 hitch around the country talking of their future, it has potential and certainly sounds heartfelt, but it would have benefited from a bit more polishing in terms of the lyric and the basic arrangement.<\/p>\n

We might point the finger at producer Andrew Watt \u2013 could he have taken a leaf out of Nigel Godrich\u2019s book, someone who apparently pushed McCartney hard during the production of 2005\u2019s excellent Chaos And Creation In The Backyard? Then again, it\u2019s a brave man who\u2019d dare to tell possibly the world\u2019s greatest songwriter that he could do better.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Paul McCartney: The Boys Of Dungeon Lane: Price Comparison<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":698752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341],"class_list":["post-698751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=698751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/698751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/698752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=698751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=698751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=698751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}