Memory Almost Full | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by Paul McCartney | |||||
Released | 4 June 2007 | ||||
Recorded | October 2003, February 2004 March 2006 – February 2007 |
||||
Studio | Abbey Road Studios, London | ||||
Genre | Rock | ||||
Length | 42:05 | ||||
Label | Hear Music | ||||
Producer | David Kahne | ||||
Paul McCartney chronology | |||||
|
|||||
Paul McCartney studio album chronology | |||||
|
|||||
Singles from Memory Almost Full | |||||
|
Professional ratings | |
---|---|
Aggregate scores | |
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 69/100 |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
Allmusic | |
Entertainment Weekly | A− |
The Guardian | |
Los Angeles Times | |
The Observer | |
Pitchfork Media | (6.4/10) |
PopMatters | (5/10) |
Robert Christgau | |
Rolling Stone | |
BBC | Favorable |
Memory Almost Full is the fourteenth solo studio album by Paul McCartney, discounting his Wings-and-Beatles-era discography, his orchestral works and his output as the Fireman. It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007 and in the United States a day later. The album was the first release on Starbucks' Hear Music label. It was produced by David Kahne and recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Henson Recording Studios, AIR Studios, Hog Hill Mill Studios and RAK Studios between October 2003, and from 2006 to February 2007. In between the 2003 and 2006 sessions, McCartney was working on another studio album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005), with producer Nigel Godrich.
Memory Almost Full reached the Top 5 in both the UK and US, as well as Denmark, Sweden, Greece, and Norway. The Grammy-nominated album has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of over 500,000 copies just in the United States. The album was released in three versions: a single disc, a 2-CD set, and a CD/DVD deluxe edition, the latter of which was released on 6 November 2007.
Nine demos were recorded at The Mill studio in September 2003 by Paul McCartney and his touring band. A month later, in October, album sessions for Memory Almost Full began, and were produced by David Kahne and recorded at Abbey Road Studios. McCartney and the band recorded the songs "You Tell Me", "Only Mama Knows", "Vintage Clothes", "That Was Me", "Feet in the Clouds", "House of Wax", "The End of the End", and "Whole Life". However, the sessions were cut short and put on hiatus when McCartney started another album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, with producer Nigel Godrich. In the website constructed for the album, McCartney stated: "I actually started this album, Memory Almost Full, before my last album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, released September 2005. (...) When I was just finishing up everything concerned with Chaos and had just got the Grammy nominations (2006) I realised I had this album to go back to and finish off. So I got it out to listen to it again, wondering if I would enjoy it, but actually I really loved it. All I did at first was just listen to a couple of things and then I began to think, 'OK, I like that track – now, what is wrong with it?' And it might be something like a drum sound, so then I would re-drum and see where we would get to. (...) In places it's a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective, drawing from memory, like memories from being a kid, from Liverpool and from summers gone. The album is evocative, emotional, rocking, but I can't really sum it up in one sentence".