I think you can divide serious music lovers into two distinct camps:

Those who prefer John Lennon and those who love Paul McCartney.

I am a Paul man myself.

That is why I have been very excited to hear Paul’s latest, Memory Almost Full. I greatly enjoyed Chaos and Creation in the Backyard but I felt that it fell short of his past efforts. Everything that I was hearing about this new album though lead me to believe that Memory Almost Full would deliver the goods.

Make no mistake, Memory Almost Full does indeed deliver. I pre-ordered it from iTunes after Scott sent me a link to the video for the first track, “Dance Tonight.” There is nothing particularly special about the song except that is it a simple toe-tapping romp complete with whistling and a mandolin.

The second track, Ever Present Past sums up what I think Sir Paul is trying to say with this whole project.

I’’ve got too much on my plate
Don’’t have no time to be a decent lover
I hope it isn’t too late
Searching for the time that has gone so fast
The time that I thought would last
My ever present past

I couldn’’t understand a word that they were saying
But still I hung around and took it all in
I wouldn’’t join in with the games that they were playing
It went by it went by in a flash
It flew by it flew by
In a flash

This soon-to-be 65 year old has looked back on his life and realized that it flown by right before his eyes. Life is like that. One minute you’re in your early 20s taking the world by storm and the next you’re an elder statesmen. Where does the time go?

Ever Present Past isn’t the only song to tackle life and legacy. The End of the End is, right now, my favorite track. You could call this track Yesterday Part 2. It is hard to believe that McCartney wrote Yesterday at the age of 24. In that song Paul is singing about what has gone on before him. He is stuck looking backward.

Forty years later Paul now looks ahead. In The End of the End he sings about the end of his life and even gives instructions about his funeral. Nothing macabre here though just beautiful images and rich lyrics.

At the end of the end
It’’s the start of a journey
To a much better place
And this wasn’t bad
So a much better place
Would have to be special
No need to be sad

On the day that I die
I’d like jokes to be told
And stories of old
To be rolled out like carpets
That children have played on
And laid on while listening
To stories of old

Stunning. It is with that last image that I see McCartney coming to grips with his place in history. His stories aren’t the first nor the last. What has been will be again. He just desires a place on the carpet where they can be unrolled again and again as generation after generation share stories and songs and life. It is a great reminder to us that we will leave a legacy. Is your legacy one that you would want sung on “blankets that lovers have played on/ and laid on while listening/ to songs that were sung?”

At the end of the end Sir Paul says that there is “No reason to cry/ No need to be sad.” I’m sure that when that day comes there will be a few tears and a few sad faces. Radio stations will play Yesterday, Let It Be, Hey Jude, Maybe I’m Amazed and all the rest. I just think that they could and should play anything from this album as well.

I believe Memory Almost Full will stand the test of time. It could very well be Paul’s best solo work to date.

Download: Ever Present Past, Only Mama Knows, House of Wax, The End of the End