Paul McCartney Tabs Beck, St. Vincent for ‘III Imagined’ Album
Paul McCartney has announced the release of McCartney III Imagined, a reinterpreted version of his 2020 album, McCartney III. The new set will include covers and remixes of the LP's songs by artists like St. Vincent, Beck, Phoebe Bridgers and Josh Homme.
A teaser of the expansive collaboration project was posted on McCartney's social-media accounts earlier this week and showed a collection of colorful tumbling dice with the artists' names on them.
The album will also include Damon Albarn, Blood Orange, Khraungbin, 3D RDN of Massive Attack, Ed O’Brien (EOB), Anderson Paak and others.
The revamped LP will be released on April 16. The first preview track, Dominic Fike's cover of "The Kiss of Venus," is available now. You can listen to it below.
McCartney III found the artist in one-man-band mode again, playing all the instruments and tracking all the vocals. The record came about almost by accident, McCartney said last year.
“I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family, and I would go to my studio every day," he recalled. "I had some stuff I’d worked on over the years, but sometimes time would run out and it would be left half-finished, so I started thinking about what I had. Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up. It was a lot of fun. It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album.”
"It's both a substantial and tossed-off work," we observed in our review of the LP, "begging not to be taken too seriously while also categorizing itself as a personal statement, just like McCartney and McCartney II, by an artist in transition. But the challenges in this work are less complicated and abrasive; getting reflective on a farm during one of the most tumultuous years any of us will ever live through will do that. In typical McCartney fashion, he handles it with ease."
You can view the track listing for McCartney III Imagined below and pre-order the album now.
Paul McCartney, 'McCartney III Imagined' Track Listing
1. Find My Way (feat. Beck)
2. The Kiss of Venus (Dominic Fike)
3. Pretty Boys (feat. Khruangbin)
4. Women And Wives (St. Vincent Remix)
5. Deep Down (Blood Orange Remix)
6. Seize The Day (feat. Phoebe Bridgers)
7. Slidin’ (EOB Remix)
8. Long Tailed Winter Bird (Damon Albarn Remix)
9. Lavatory Lil (Josh Homme)
10. When Winter Comes (Anderson .Paak Remix)
11. Deep Deep Feeling (3D RDN Remix)
12. Long Tailed Winter Bird (Idris Elba Remix)*