"I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else?" Paul McCartney announces new album The Boys of Dungeon Lane. Listen to first single Days We Left Behind

Paul McCartney has announced details of his first solo album in over five years, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, set for release on May 29 via MPL / Capitol.

The album, recorded with Andrew Watt (The Rolling Stones, Pearl Jam, Ozzy Obourne), is billed as the former Beatles' most introspective album to date, is described as "a collection of rare and revealing glimpses into memories never-before shared, along with some newly inspired love songs, from one of the most culturally significant figures of our time."

A press statement reads: "With The Boys of Dungeon Lane, Paul McCartney turns the lens inward, revisiting the formative years that shaped not only his life, but the very foundations of modern popular culture. In a career defined by timeless storytelling and unforgettable characters, Paul now tells the most personal story of all, his own.

"These extraordinary new songs find Paul in a candid, vulnerable and deeply reflective mood, writing with rare openness about his childhood in post-war Liverpool, the resilience of his parents, and early adventures shared with George Harrison and John Lennon long before the world had ever heard of Beatlemania. These were the years that historians continue to examine, the quiet, unguarded days that unknowingly laid the groundwork for a cultural revolution. Paul visits them not as myths or folklore but as his own memories."

The album release is preceded today by the release of its first single, Days We Left Behind.

Speaking about Days We Left Behind, McCartney says: "This is very much a memory song for me. The album title, The Boys of Dungeon Lane, comes from a lyric in this track. I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past but then I think how can you write about anything else?

"It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool. It involves a bit in the middle about John and Forthlin Road which is the street I used to live in. Dungeon Lane is near there. I used to live in a place called Speke which is quite working class. We didn’t have much at all but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much."

Listen to the song below.

The Boys of Dungeon Lane was nudged into existence in 2021, when McCartney met producer Andrew Watt. While playing around on the guitar during the meeting, the 83-year-old musical legend happened upon a chord that he didn’t recognise. He then apparently carried on changing one note, then another, until he had a three-chord sequence which Watt suggested they should record. This session yielded the album’s opening track, As You Lie There and a new creative partnership was born.

The album tracklist is:

1. As You Lie There
2. Lost Horizon
3. Days We Left Behind
4. Ripples in a Pond
5. Mountain Top
6. Down South
7. We Two
8. Come Inside
9. Never Know
10. Home to Us
11. Life Can Be Hard
12. First Star of the Night
13. Salesman Saint
14. Momma Gets By