When you ask people about the Beatles, you come to one of two conclusions; either Paul McCartney is dead and leeched off of the talent of John Lennon to reach stardom, or McCartney wrote the songs that allowed Lennon to experiment and be weird. Given the successes, or lack thereof, of the solo careers of the two, it's hard to make a case for the first conclusion. Paul McCartney is obviously alive, and has shown with Wings and his myriad solo records that he had more than enough songs in him to carry the Beatles on his own. Lennon, while he did pen the legendary "Imagine", never did anything else that measured up to the work of his famous band. That being said, neither conclusion about the Beatles is correct. Neither McCartney nor Lennon could have carried the band to the heights they reached without the other. However, examining the output of the two shows without a doubt that McCartney was the more prolific, and more important musician.

McCartney's solo albums have been a maze of good and bad. He's written some great songs since his time with the Fab Four, but he's also released albums of less than amazing songs, and has had a fascination with lo-fi recording that takes all of the power out of any songs that he wrote. Part of the appeal of the works with the Beatles was the "wall of sound" production techniques that revolutionized recording. It could be arguedthat just as much as any of the songs, the production helped the Beatles to become the biggest band of all time. McCartney's shunning of production is puzzling, and has dampered any excitement over each release.

That brings us to "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard", yet another excursion through the songwriting well that is Paul McCartney. For this outing, McCartney handled almost all of the instrumentation himself. Fortunately for him, working only with himself seems to be the right way for him to go. "Chaos" is the best McCartney solo album in quite a while, and is less a return to form as a new avenue to explore. "Fine Line", the opening track and first single, is a classic slice of Beatles pop that could have been written in the 60's. The bouncing piano line and rolling melody harken back to the days of yore. It's a fleeting moment, however, as McCartney instead uses the rest of the album to write more plaintive, introspective songs.

The tempos never pick up to a frantic pace, the mood never seems joyous, and the hooks are far more subtle and distant than one would expect from an album by McCartney. "How Kind of You" drones on a horn arrangement without any real song structure. Likewise, "At the Mercy", "Certain Softness", "This Never Happened", and "Anyway" all eschew pop hooks for melancholy atmosphere. The songs aren't likely to stick in your head, but their quality is still high. Atmosphere is hard to create, and these songs are experts.

"Jenny Wren" is a lovely fingerpicked folk song which is the highlight of the album. The simplicity of the song focuses every moment of it into a razor sharp excercise. "Too Much Rain" is a plaintive tale set in a sea of acoustic guitars and piano. The bittersweet emotions running through the song are perfectly matched by the sad piano lines and contrasting acoustic guitars. The song lacks a traditionally huge hook, which would distract from the pathos.

The bottom line is that McCartney hasn't put out a record as good as this one in a long time, and never one like it. Rather than rehash the same oold thing again and again, he's finally moved on to a slightly new variation of his pop formula. You can't expect him to become a jazz fusion artist, but the slight change in focus has done him a world of good. For the first time in ages, McCartney seems relavent to the music world, and if Sir Paul wants to keep the respect that he's gotten over the years, that's a pretty good thing to be.

Rating: 84/100