Not enough chaos, minimally creative

Recently on a whim, I burned myself a CD of the Beatles' classic "Revolver" album with the songs in reverse order, so that it began with the baffling "Tomorrow Never Knows," followed by "Got To Get You Into My Life" and all the way back to "Taxman." It's a brilliant album forwards and backwards, of course, and the "backwards" version tends to put its adventurousness a bit more "in your face." I reflected on "Revolver" as I tried to decide what to write about "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard," the new Paul McCartney album.

It's a terribly unfair comparison, of course. But for the cover, he did put a picture of himself playing guitar in the family yard in 1962, so he must have wanted to evoke that era in some way. Sadly, it's 43 years later now. McCartney's music from the 1960s is still fresh and amazing. His new music sounds old and tired. No, that's not true, it's peppy enough in spots. It's just, well, and this is probably the worst thing you can tell a musician - the new music is bland.

If this was not PAUL MCCARTNEY, there'd be not much to recommend this album. Shortly after producing "The Beatles Anthology" materials reacquainted him with his best work, McCartney put out a pair of solid albums, the almost Beatlesque "Flaming Pie" and the early-'60s rock-and-roll throwback "Run Devil Run." But lately he's back to putting out pleasant enough little ditties that melt in your mouth but leave no aftertaste at all. Someone's knocking at the door, somebody's ringing the bell, maybe if we ignore it long enough he'll go away.

The most interesting music on the album is a bonus track that starts at the 4:10 mark of the 3:50 final song, "Anyway." It's an instrumental riff that takes off from the chord progressions of that last song and moves off into different territory. After the pat little tunes he assembled for the actual album, the encore is refreshingly experimental, but even that piece is something to write home about simply because it's different from the rest; it's certainly not going to live forever.

Lyrically, McCartney starts out with a very nice observation: "There is a fine line between recklessness and courage/It's about time you understood which road to take ..." But this album is neither reckless nor courageous. It's just - there. I was shocked a few months ago when I walked into Shop-Rite and found "Run Devil Run" on sale for $6 with the other CD cutouts. I won't be at all surprised when I find "Chaos and Creation in the Backyard" there.