Simon Vozick-Levinson
Contact Simon Vozick-Levinson on X View all posts by Simon Vozick-Levinson May 22, 2026
Illustration by Brian Lutz Paul McCartney wants to tell you a story. Have a seat, and listen as he paints the scene in soft-spoken words: “I used to walk past your house,” he begins, his voice a little hoarser these days but no less tender. “Every night, I’d look up at your window. The light was on. I saw your silhouette on the blind.…” It’s a bittersweet memory from long ago, something like the Beatles’ “No Reply,” but with all the resentment replaced by gentler feelings. “Do I ever cross your mind as you lie there?” he asks that ancient crush. Then the band kicks in — actually, it’s mostly just Sir Paul himself, playing at least nine instruments — and there it is: All these years later, there are still few greater pleasures in pop music than hearing this one guy rock out.
“As You Lie There” is the first song on The Boys of Dungeon Lane, McCartney’s first studio album in six years, and it sets the tone for this warm, nostalgic late-career masterpiece. There are several songs about his early years in Liverpool, including a good-old-days duet with his buddy Ringo Starr; the album’s title references a street in the neighborhood where both he and George Harrison grew up. Overall, there’s the sense of a legend looking back on a life well spent. This isn’t necessarily a new theme for McCartney, who’s been singing about what he once called his ever-present past for years now. But the autumnal vibe is more pronounced than ever, and there’s an unusual poignance to songs like “Days We Left Behind,” where he shuffles through some old black-and-white photos and finds only “smoky bars and cheap guitars/But nothing built to last.” It’s one of the most moving acoustic ballads in a canon that’s far from short on them, a “Yesterday” with six more decades of experience behind the quiet sadness.
That’s not to say that this album is a downer, by any means. McCartney’s life force remains undimmed throughout these 14 tracks, and the joy he finds in making music comes through in every chord change. On “Mountain Top,” the eternally youthful 83-year-old recalls a pleasant hike amid magic mushrooms and butterflies, with harpsichord, bongos, and tape loops adding to the trippy atmosphere. “Come Inside” is a free-wheeling, hand-clapping rocker reminiscent of 1993’s Off the Ground. “Never Know” grooves and swings in ways that recall Wings circa 1979’s Back to the Egg. “Life Can Be Hard” and “Ripples in a Pond” are romantic tributes to the woman in his life, reminders that love isn’t silly at all.
