Released in 2005, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, was instantly hailed as continuing a hot streak that included Flaming Pie, Run Devil Run and Driving Rain. Produced by Nigel Godrich (Radiohead, Beck) and featuring the singles “Fine Line” and the Grammy-winning “Jenny Wren,” the album debuted at #6 on the Billboard chart. It remained on the charts for nearly half a year, while Paul mounted the massive ‘US’ Tour. In 2007, “Jenny Wren” won the Grammy for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance, while the album was nominated in three other categories including Album of the Year.
That 2005's Chaos & Creation In The Backyard arrived as a dramatic return to form for Paul McCartney is something of an oversimplification. The fact is, dodgy orchestral and electronic side projects aside, solo Macca's only true fallow period was the mid-'80s, and the three albums prior to CHAOS were all solid, not un-Beatlesque affairs. That said, it's impossible to deny that this is one of Paul's finest post-Wings releases. He mines Fabs-friendly melodies and arrangements unabashedly (occasionally with tongue firmly in cheek), and who better to do so?
Part of the reason for the album's resonance is the presence of Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, the first man since George Martin with the gall to make McCartney work for his money. (Paul's basically a one-man band throughout, for the first time since McCARTNEY II.) A deeper reason lies in the obvious emotional depths McCartney plumbs, leaving his trademark happy-face/Silly Love Songs persona far behind and betraying an unprecedented level of melancholy and introspection. Revisionists who claim the spirit of the Beatles died with Mark David Chapman's bullet in 1980 should only wish that, had John Lennon lived, he'd still be making music as aesthetically relevant as this 25 years down the line.
- Genre: Pop, Rock
- Format: Vinyl
Track Listings
1 Fine Line - Side A
2 How Kind Of You - Side A
3 Jenny Wren - Side A
4 At The Mercy (Side A)
5 Friends To Go (Side A)
6 English Tea (Side A)
7 Too Much Rain - Side A
8 A Certain Softness (Side B)
9 Riding To Vanity Fair (Side B)
10 Follow Me (Side B)
11 Promise To You Girl (Side B)
12 This Never Happened Before (Side B)
13 Anyway - Side B
