Paul McCartney blends rock and melancholic ballads in 'The Boys of Dungeon Lane,' his 20th solo album

When the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were both active in the 1960s, manager Andrew Loog Oldham was careful to make sure the Stones releases did not clash with those of "The Fab Four," who dominated the charts. That was the case in 1966, when two British pop classics were released: Aftermath (the Stones) and Revolver (the Beatles). Sixty years later, the surviving members of both bands are still making headlines. On July 10, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, both 82 and founding members of the Rolling Stones since 1962, will release Foreign Tongues, their 25th studio album, already notable for its cover – arguably the ugliest in a discography famous for them. The album will feature the Beatles co-founder Paul McCartney, a year older than Jagger and Richards, who got a head start on Friday, May 29, with The Boys of Dungeon Lane, his 20th solo album since his split from John Lennon in 1970. One notable detail: The left-handed bassist and multi-instrumentalist worked with the same producer and musician, 35-year-old New Yorker Andrew Watt, who has produced for the Stones since Hackney Diamonds (2023). More traditional than the Stones, "Macca" limited his guest list to his former band's drummer, the one and only Ringo Starr, now 85. You have 73.82% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.