[Dixielandjazz] Paul McCartney reviewed - The Australian, January 28, 2012

[Robert Ringwald]

Paul McCartney: Kisses on the Bottom (UMA)
by Ian Cuthbertson
The Australian, January 28, 2012
Paul McCartney took time out from last year's mammoth tour of North America and Europe
to marry third wife Nancy Shevell. Perhaps love has mellowed the old rocker, or maybe,
at 69, he's finally grown tired of belting out Helter Skelter, Jet and Maybe I'm
Amazed every night.
Kisses on the Bottom is the biggest stylistic jump in the man's apparently endless
career. It sounds like a Diana Krall album with less hackneyed light jazz standards,
sung by one of the most distinctive voices of the 20th century. Krall lent her band
to the former Fab, and she appears as a guest vocalist.
If the title seems odd, it's a lyric from the opener, a slinky, breathy version of
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter, a hit for Fats Waller in 1936.
"I'm gonna write words oh so sweet / they're gonna knock me off my feet / A lotta
kisses on the bottom / I'll be glad I got 'em," he sings.
Like Vegas, jazz standards albums are often a last resort for pop musicians, but
this collection hasn't the faintest whiff of desperation about it. McCartney croons
effectively through Home (When Shadows Fall), It's Only a Paper Moon, The Glory of
Love and the gorgeous More I Cannot Wish You, faltering only on a forced sounding
Always. His own compositions, the first single My Valentine, and the Beatle-esque
Only Our Hearts, easily hold their own in such exalted company.
___________________________________
by Michael Dwyer
Melbourne Age, January 28, 2012
Macca always copped flak for being the smoochy one but '30s and '40s show tunes were
just as vital as '50s rock'n'roll to the new musical landscape he and Lennon forged
in the '60s. It has taken him 50 years to pause his own songwriting stream and pay
direct tribute to the witty wordplay and sumptuous harmonies of Cole Porter, Frank
Loesser, Harold Arlen and their ilk (the daft album title is a Fats Waller line)
but his melancholy late-life murmur suits the nostalgia beautifully. Equally in thrall
to old-world magic are Diana Krall, Eric Clapton and Stevie Wonder, each palpable
but muted as McCartney croons to his inspiration. Two new original tunes highlight
his enduring skill as an old-school songsmith.


--Bob Ringwald
www.ringwald.com
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