Hey, it’s Yaniv!

Merry Christmas everyone! While you are all celebrating and having fun with your families, me as the Jewish representative (it’s just a normal day around here today…) is happy to provide you with some holiday entertainment!
And this time is all about celebrating one of the greatest musicians in rock and pop music: the one and only, Sir Paul McCartney!

I will waste no time introducing him. Today’s pack (which, by the way, was named after the documentary “McCartney: Now and Then“, and before the song was released as a Beatles song) brings to the game 18 (!!) more gems by McCartney, split into two parts: the “Then” part covers his 70’s output, Wings and Solo, right after the Beatles broke up – and the “Now” part covers his late career output, from the end of the 90’s up until his latest “McCartney III“. So let’s go!

Then

The “Then” pack covers McCartney through the 70’s, mostly with Wings. Even though the Wings period is already pretty well represented in game (both in Harmonix official DLC and customs), there were still plenty of gems available. Starting with Ram, the Paul/Linda McCartney album considered by many to be the finest McCartney solo album – we have the beautiful, peaceful “Heart of the Country“, complete with some great Paul scat singing (and it’s really fun on everything).

Moving on to Wings, we have two more songs from the seminal Band on the Run album: the beautiful “Bluebird” (unofficial sequel to “Blackbird“), and the closing piano bop “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five“, which has become a McCartney concert staple in recent years. Moving on, we have “Sally G“, McCartney’s charming attempt at a Nashville country tune (is there anything he can’t do?), and two bangers from the “Venus and Mars” album: the groovy “Letting Go” with constant key changes and some great guitar solos, and “Medicine Jar” – a bop written and performed by Wings guitarist Jimmy McCulloch.

Finally, from the “Wings at the Speed of Sound” album, we have the silly charming “Let ‘Em In” that could be used to greet your Christmas guests, and the absolute epic “Beware My Love” which is one of my favorites, just great piano rock. And finally, the groovy, disco influenced “Arrow Through Me” – with a very memorable brass riff.

Some video previews: thanks TheOreo for those!

Now

The second part of the pack, the “Now” portion, covers the late stage of McCartney’s solo career.

Starting from 1999, the “Flaming Pie” album is already well covered in the DB, but it’s missing “Flaming Pie” itself – so here it is! Moving on to the brilliant, Nigel Godrich produced “Chaos and Creation in the Backyard“, I bring you three songs: lead single and opening track “Fine Line“, the beautiful “Follow Me” (debuted live at Glastonbury 2004), and the romantic “This Never Happened Before“, which gained prominence after appearing in the movie “The Lake House“. And from 2007’s “Memory Almost Full“, we have the rocking banger “Only Mama Knows“.

Moving a few years forward, we have the psychedelic hit “New” from the album of the same name, produced by Mark Ronson. And finally, 3 songs from the latest “McCartney III” album – the two rockers of the album, the heavy “Slidin’” and the bop “Lavatory Lil“, and finally, finishing off with a big ballad – the classic “Seize the Day“, a perfect fit for Christmas day.

And that’s it! This is the only release for today. We’ll be back tomorrow with two Album Series releases in one day! Have a merry Christmas everyone, and don’t forget to donate!

https://ndss.org/ – National Down Syndrome Society.

https://dsaom.org/ – Down Syndrome Association of Miami.