Paul McCartney Announces New Album ‘McCartney III’

Paul McCartney will put out a new studio album, McCartney III, via Capitol Records on December 11. The LP comes 50 years after Paul kicked off his solo career with McCartney and 30 years after the release of McCartney II. McCartney wrote, recorded and played every instrument on McCartney III in similar fashion to McCartney and McCartney II.

McCartney III was recorded while Paul was self-quarantining during the pandemic on his farm in Sussex. Paul laid down live takes on vocals and guitar or piano and then overdubbed additional instruments atop the base. He was inspired to craft the album after revisiting “When Winter Comes,” an unreleased track from the early-1990s co-produced with George Martin. Macca wrote a new passage for the song, which closes out the LP as “Winter Bird/When Winter Comes” with “Long Tailed Winter Bird” kicking off the record.

Read a note from Paul about McCartney III below:

I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day. I had to do a little bit of work on some film music and that turned into the opening track and then when it was done I thought what will I do next? I had some stuff I’d worked on over the years but sometimes time would run out and it would be left half-finished so I started thinking about what I had. Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up, it was a lot of fun. It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album.

Vinyl pressings manufacturered by Third Man Records will be available in addition to McCartney III’s release on digital platforms and CD.