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PAUL McCARTNEY : THE BOYS OF DUNGEON LANE
- As You Lie There
- Lost Horizon
- Days We Left Behind
- Ripples in a Pond
- Mountain Top
- Down South
- We Two
- Come Inside
- Never Know
- Home to Us
- Life Can Be Hard
- First Star of the Night
- Salesman Saint
- Momma Gets By
Label : Capitol Records
Length : 47:12
Release Date : May 29, 2026
Review (AllMusic) : Paul McCartney gets back to his roots on his reflective, yet sonically potent 2026 studio album The Boys of Dungeon Lane. Produced with Andrew Watt, the album finds McCartney looking back at his youth in Liverpool and drawing inspiration both from his family history, friends, and early years gigging with the Beatles. While there is certainly a deep feeling of pathos running throughout the album, McCartney sounds relaxed and confident, as if this was his third or fourth album and not his 20th in a long line of utterly classic recordings. Vocally, he remains as eternally young as ever with just a hint of his 83 years adding gravitas to the softer ballads. With Watt gently encouraging a balance of singer/songwriter intimacy and musical experimentation, they capture a '70s melodic rock vibe that nicely draws inspiration from albums like Ram, and even the Jeff Lynne-produced Flaming Pie, without ever sounding throwback. It opens in wry prog-folk style with "As You Lie There," a half-spoken word song that explodes into a throaty, Wings-esque chorus where McCartney ostensibly ponders a crush he had on a neighbor girl growing up, wondering, "Do I ever cross your mind?" It's a funny, rather down to earth question for a living legend, but one that begs ever more existential answers throughout the album; is he talking to that girl, his fans, himself? He underscores the poetic introspection on the twangy, glitter-rocker "Lost Horizon," where the sound of a children's playground sparks emotion, both lifting him up and as he admits, "does my head in." Similarly, on "Days We Left Behind," out tumble images of his rock & roll teen years with John Lennon, including smoky bars and cheap guitars; "nothing built to last" he sings. He also digs into his far past, paying homage to his parents and their post-war struggles on "Salesman Saint," a minor-key waltz that evokes the optimistic, hard-scrabble world of work, music, and family that shaped him. It also finds him playing trumpet, his first passion before the guitar and a carry-over from the big-band swing era of his childhood. McCartney's memories are full of small, everyday moments that nonetheless leave you with the haunting sense of history being made, whether it's hitchhiking and talking guitars with George Harrison in "Down South" or dreaming of a soulmate like he had in Linda McCartney in "We Two," the latter a beautifully stripped song that feels like a heartfelt echo of the Beatles' classic "Two of Us." There's also "Home to Us," an anthemic homage to Liverpool in which he duets with Ringo Starr, trading verses for the first time in their careers. McCartney's gift for hummable pop songcraft endures and more than one of these songs is likely to pop into your head days after listening. Yet, it's all those little moments on The Boys of Dungeon Lane and the way McCartney brings his past to life that makes the album one of his most affecting.
Review (Pitchfork) : Paul McCartney must have been born nostalgic. How else to explain songs like “Penny Lane,” “The Long and Winding Road,” and “Your Mother Should Know,” all wistful reveries for a mythical past, penned while McCartney was still in his 20s? So it’s only natural that the 83-year-old singer-songwriter should indulge in a wistful return to old Liverpool times on the autobiographical The Boys of Dungeon Lane, his first studio album in six years. The tired old trope that John Lennon was the experimental Beatle while McCartney made music for grannies may have long been disproved, but this is also not the McCartney of Kanye collabs and secret ambient techno albums; it’s not even the figure behind the vague hip-hop inflections of 2020’s McCartney III. Instead The Boys of Dungeon Lane gives us comfortable, whimsical Macca in excelsis—even “Mountain Top,” the album’s big psychedelic number, is as soft as a toy poodle—and, largely, it suits him. McCartney didn’t really even have to try here. Beatles fans will flip for the very idea of songs like “Down South,” about hitchhiking with George Harrison; and “Home to Us,” a duet with Ringo Starr. Whether this is McCartney cramming his basket full of low-hanging fruit or simply leaning into his strengths will depend on your tolerance for extremely well-crafted sentimentalia. The album has some captivating musical moments, notably the teatime psychedelia of “Mountain Top,” which ends (all too briefly) with eerie tape loops and a driving Apache beat, and “Salesman Saint,” a song about the experiences of McCartney’s parents during World War II that plays with contrasting time signatures and Big Band jazz. And the story behind “We Two” is fascinating—McCartney and producer Andrew Watt used a four-track tape machine that the Fab Four once recorded on, then bounced down the tracks for that authentic ’60s feel—even if the results are resolutely retro, most notable for the heavy Beatles snare sound. Mostly, though, Dungeon Lane’s musical palette is raucous guitar boogie, like Wings in their rockier moments, interspersed with dreamy acoustic numbers, as soft as campfire marshmallows. What carries the album is its songwriting. McCartney may be history’s greatest writer of silly love songs and sentimental pop tunes, and if there’s nothing as toweringly evocative on The Boys of Dungeon Lane as “Penny Lane,” there’s also nothing as cloyingly lightweight as his work on 1984’s “We All Stand Together” with the Frog Chorus. “Days We Left Behind,” a maudlin tale of “smoky bars and cheap guitars,” has a first-rate chorus that seems tailor-made for McCartney’s newly fragile upper range, sung like a man whose intense reminiscing has actually left him out of breath, while “Momma Gets By” is a haunting ballad laced with drama. “Down South” initially feels disappointing in its low-key storytelling until the plaintive and ingeniously simple chorus hooks the listener with its tale of friendship forged. Even when songs don’t connect, they are constructed with the invisible efficiency of a top-end Swiss watch. “As You Lie There” switches on a dime between strutting glam rock and acoustic whimsy, simultaneously innocent and horny in a way that brilliantly conveys the song’s tale of teenage infatuation, while “Ripples in a Pond” twitches, turns, and doubles back on the melody with the stylish confidence of a master songwriter. Only a handful of songs fall flat. “Lost Horizon,” initially written in the early 2000s, has a satisfyingly vinegary guitar lead, but you can understand why McCartney forgot about it in the first place; “Come Inside” is like the Rolling Stones with all venom clinically removed; and the album’s nadir is “Home to Us,” which sounds like McCartney ripping off Oasis ripping off the Beatles in its clownish stomp and leaden melody. But even then, it’s kind of cute in the way that two former Beatles reminiscing about roses in the yard and burnt toast, like two elderly chums wrapped up snug by the fire, will inevitably be. Above all, The Boys of Dungeon Lane is a perfectly professional album, a beautifully realized drip feed of nostalgia with no sharp edges or harmful aftereffects. McCartney is such a wily old pro that there was little chance of The Boys of Dungeon Lane failing on its own terms, which makes it a low-stakes kind of triumph. But an underwhelming win is still a win and, in the right kind of circumstances (caution is advised around strong alcohol, old photos, and the holiday season), The Boys of Dungeon Lane could still hit like a (silver) hammer, a reminder that nostalgia is a powerful drug, and the most obvious path can also be the best one.
Review (Wikipedia) : The Boys of Dungeon Lane is the twentieth solo studio album by English musician Paul McCartney, released on 29 May 2026 through Capitol Records. Co-produced with Andrew Watt in sessions dating back to 2021, it was announced on 26 March 2026 along with the release of its lead single, "Days We Left Behind". The second single, "Home to Us", is a duet with Ringo Starr. "The boys of Dungeon Lane" was a lyric used by McCartney in the song "In Liverpool", a 1991 demo. Dungeon Lane is a road in the Speke area of Liverpool, and the album is generally inspired by McCartney's childhood memories in the area. The lane leads from Speke to Oglet Shore on the Mersey, an area that was popular with birdwatchers. Before the album's announcement, McCartney teased the album using bird emojis on his social media.On 25 March 2026, McCartney's brother Mike made a social media post about posters being put up around Liverpool featuring the artwork for the album, and stating that his son, Josh, was the designer. The artwork is inspired by Liverpool's street signs and features the Speke postcode L24. The album is co-produced by Andrew Watt. McCartney and Watt first met in 2021, and their first recording session together resulted in the album opener "As You Lie There". McCartney played the majority of instruments. It was recorded in sessions between legs of his Got Back tour, spanning five years and alternating between Los Angeles and McCartney's Hogg Hill Mill studio in East Sussex. "Home to Us" features Ringo Starr on drums and vocals, with backing vocals by Chrissie Hynde and Sharleen Spiteri. The lead single, "Days We Left Behind", was released on 26 March 2026. Early promotion of the album included updated Google Street View imagery of Dungeon Lane. On 5 May, McCartney hosted an album listening party at Abbey Road Studios. The second single, "Home to Us", was released on 8 May, and the album was released on 29 May. Jacaranda Records hosted the first public listening event of the album on 22 May at its flagship venue The Jacaranda, a bar and club long associated with McCartney's early musical career. According to the review aggregator Metacritic, The Boys of Dungeon Lane received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 86 out of 100 from fourteen critic scores. The review aggregator Any Decent Music gave the album a weighted average score of 7.7 out of 10 from sixteen critic scores. In a 5-star review, Neil McCormick of The Telegraph wrote, "The Boys of Dungeon Lane is certainly as good as anything [McCartney] has given us in the last 50 years." A review in Paste assessed, "Two Paul McCartneys are battling for space on The Boys of Dungeon Lane. ... The first is an unabashed nostalgist, a genteel romantic. ... The other is, thankfully, a wild man—the same spirit that animated everything from the absurdist studio tinkering of 'You Know My Name (Look Up the Number)' to the clanging folk curiosity 'Wild Honey Pie'."