Paul McCartney blends reflection with joy (and Ringo) on &x27;The Boys of Dungeon Lane&x27; Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAYFri, May 29, 2026 at 4:12 PM UTC 0 Seeing Paul McCartney charm on “Saturday Night Live,” help Stephen Colbert turn out the lights in the Ed Sullivan Theater, even pop up on nonoctogenariancourting TikTok, felt more profound than mere album promotion. When “Days We Left Behind,” the first single from his 20th solo album “The Boys of Dungeon Lane,” dropped in March, reaction was swift.
Paul McCartney blends reflection with joy (and Ringo) on 'The Boys of Dungeon Lane'
Melissa Ruggieri, USA TODAYFri, May 29, 2026 at 4:12 PM UTC
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Seeing Paul McCartney charm on “Saturday Night Live,” help Stephen Colbert turn out the lights in the Ed Sullivan Theater, even pop up on non-octogenarian-courting TikTok, felt more profound than mere album promotion.
When “Days We Left Behind,” the first single from his 20th solo album “The Boys of Dungeon Lane,” dropped in March, reaction was swift. Was this McCartney saying goodbye?
Then came his first-ever post-Beatles duet with Ringo Starr on “Home to Us” and you could practically hear the proverbial orchestra readying the play-off music to one of – if not the – most consequential careers in pop music.
If these two legends, the last men standing of the most influential band in music history, found the time to join talents again, surely the end must be nigh, right?
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Paul McCartney's "The Boys of Dungeon Lane" album finds him in a reflective mood.Is Paul McCartney saying goodbye on new album?
But reading deeper into the 14 songs on “The Boys of Dungeon Lane,” out now, it becomes clear that McCartney’s reflective state is, yes, rooted in nostalgia, though not necessarily a swan song.
Instead, it’s McCartney at what he does best – maintaining his position as our gentle guide and eternal cheerleader, reassuring over strings and piano on “Life Can Be Hard” and inviting us to keep nodding our heads to deceptively simple melodies that cling to our emotional core inside the chunky groove of “Lost Horizon.”
His once-supple voice altered by age, as well as by a lifetime dedicated to singing and performing, is a stark reminder of the passage of time; he is nothing if not realistic when singing, “Nothing stays the same, no one needs to cry/nothing can reclaim the days we left behind.”
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"The Boys of Dungeon Lane" is Paul McCartney's first album of new material in almost five years.Paul McCartney can still rock while being introspective
It’s OK that McCartney, who turns 84 June 18, still has introspection to share. He should.
But he can also glide from quietly plucked guitar strings to a roar of electric guitar in the opening track, “As You Lie There,” cowritten (along with four other songs) by album coproducer Andrew Watt, a legend whisperer a la Brandi Carlile and Elton John.
McCartney’s innate ability to uncork a bop such as “Ripples on a Pond” or the jaunty Starr-sharing “Home to Us” – two mates reminiscing with audible smiles and a background vocal assist from The Pretenders' Chrissie Hynde – is undiminished.
But so is his knack for contemplation, as might be expected from the guy who wrote “The Long and Winding Road” and “Eleanor Rigby” as well “Penny Lane” and "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da."
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Paul McCartney's genius remains on new album
McCartney reaches that equilibrium on the album’s final track, “Momma Gets By.” It’s a fictional song, not about his beloved mother Mary who died when he was 14, but still one saturated in pensiveness, minor piano chords and quivering strings (arranged by Giles Martin and Ben Foster) as sumptuous as a movie score.
It might seem a downer of a closer, this tale of a beleaguered wife married to a flop of a husband, but in typical McCartney fashion, he parts the clouds to spotlight the rainbow, singing in a voice reaching for closure, “She’s got her own philosophy of life … even though he’s complicated, she takes it in her stride.”
If this is McCartney’s finale, whether prompted by age or circumstance, it’s true that, as Seals and Crofts once sang, “we may never pass this way again.”
But how lucky we have been to live through McCartney’s genius and, for now, still have the spirited guy always ready to strap on his bass with a thumbs up and sideways smile.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Is Paul McCartney saying goodbye on new album?
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Published: May 29, 2026 at 12:45PM on Source: PRIME TIME
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