McCartney Pimps Music, Keeps Mum on Mills

Tue., May. 1, 2007 10:21 AM PDT by Gina Serpe

Paul McCartney is going on the record about his new record—and nothing else.

The former Beatle released a lengthy statement on his Website Monday, waxing nostalgic on the making of his 21st solo album, Memory Almost Full, but imploring fans not to read too much into the "very personal," and at times vindictive, lyrics.

"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," he said in a letter to fans posted on paulmccartney.com. "The album is evocative, emotional, rocking, but I can't really sum it up in one sentence."

The 64-year-old decided to release the letter in lieu of doing the requisite promotional rounds to hawk the disc, due out June 5. Apparently McCartney didn't want to deal with endless queries about the split from Heather Mills and whether some of his more spiteful lyrics target his estranged wife.

One such lyric that has already raised eyebrows can be found on the track "Gratitude": "I should stop loving you, think what you put me through, but I don't want to lock my heart away."

He also doesn't want to invite commentary.

"I know people are going to look at some of the songs and interpret them in different ways, but this has always been the case," he wrote. "The thing is that I love writing songs, so I just write and write. I never really get to the point where I start thinking I'm going to write about specific subjects. Inevitably, though, what I am thinking is going to find its way into what I'm doing."

As evidenced by songs with titles such as "End of the End," "Ever Present Past" and "House of Wax," McCartney characterizes Memory Almost Full as being "purposefully retrospective."

"I thought this might be because I'm at this point in my life, but then I think about the times I was writing with John [Lennon] and a lot of that was also looking back. It's like me with 'Penny Lane' and 'Eleanor Rigby'—I'm still up to the same tricks!"

McCartney, who began writing the album way back in autumn 2003, before the release of his now two-year-old record, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, has yet to start out on the promo trail, though in the meantime is tiding over the cross-Atlantic masses with a well-credentialed, albeit hush-hush, music video.

Directed by Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind's Michel Gondry and starring Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook, who starred in the original The Office and the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, McCartney said, "I'm not going to give the plot away...but we had a good time doing it."

The album is set to be his first release off Starbucks' newly minted Hear Music record label and will be available at the coffee chain next month.

McCartney has yet to announce whether he'll embark on a tour to support his new track list, but an unabashed moneymaking effort may not be the worst idea.

While his estimated fortune of $1.4 billion makes him well off by even Bill Gates' standards, the music icon nevertheless saw his financial stock fall this year, ranking a measly third place on the Sunday Times' annual list of Britain's richest musicians.

The former Beatle's net worth reportedly dropped more than $200 million from the same time last year, owing to the estimated cost of his still-pending divorce from Mills.