PAUL MCCARTNEY GOES SOLO FOR A THIRD TIME

Fifty years ago, Paul McCartney made his first album where he played every instrument and wrote every song. He did it again in 1980 and now has done it for a third time.

McCartney III, a stripped-down, self-produced effort recorded earlier this year in Sussex, will be released 12/11 on Capitol Records across digital platforms, on CD and on LP manufactured by Third Man Pressing.

In the tradition of 1970's McCartney and 1980’s McCartney II, McCartney III is mostly built from live takes of McCartney on vocals and guitar or piano, overdubbing his bass playing, drumming, etc., atop that foundation. The process began when he returned to an unreleased track from the early '90s, “When Winter Comes,” co-produced by George Martin. He wrote a new passage for the song, giving rise to album opener “Long Tailed Winter Bird.”

“I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day,” Macca says. “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 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.”

An array of vintage instruments used on the album includes the double bass Bill Black used in Elvis Presley's original trio, McCartney's own Hofner violin bass and a mellotron from Abbey Road Studios used on Beatles recordings.

Third Man vinyl configurations will range from standard 180g to an edition of 3,000 hand-numbered red platters to a “333” edition sold only via the Third Man Records online store and limited to 333 copies in yellow-with-black-dots, created using 33 recycled vinyl copies of McCartney and McCartney II, to a U.S. indie-retail exclusive pressing of 4,000 hand-numbered white LPs.