Out Tuesday (November 13) is Driving Rain, the latest album from ex- Beatle Paul McCartney. Much attention has been paid to the fact that McCartney made the album-his first since 1999’s cover-heavy Run Devil Run, and his first release of all-new music since 1997’s Flaming Pie-with an entirely new creative team, including producer David Kahne and a group of young studio musicians that includes guitarist Rusty Anderson, keyboardist Gabe Dixon, and drummer Abe Laboriel Jr., the son of the famed session bassist.
However, McCartney said that he doesn’t think fans will find the sound of Driving Rain foreign. “It sounds like a band playing music,” he says. “Beyond that, it’s difficult to say. It’s me singing. It’s quite varied-the material is quite varied, but it somehow holds together-so it’s kind of interesting. It’s kind of rock-and-roll-stroke-pop-you know, I hate those definitions-but it’s what I would call a regular studio album from me, but I feel there’s something special about it.”
McCartney cut Driving Rain at Henson Recording in Los Angeles in the spring and early summer of this year. An additional track, “Freedom”-which McCartney wrote in the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks and debuted at the October 20 Concert For New York City-was a late addition to the album and is also the B-side of the first single, “From A Lover To A Friend,” sales of which are raising money for charitable causes.
