The Art of McCartney is a 34-song compilation of Paul McCartney’s greatest hits covered by a variety of (in)famous names ranging from Bob Dylan (“Things We Said Today”) to Owl City (“Listen to What the Man Said”), Brian Wilson (“Wanderlust”), Heart (“Band on the Run”), Willie Nelson (“Yesterday”) and a whole lot of others. It’s set to be released on November 18, but you can stream the 2-plus hour monstrosity below...
The physical album will also be offered as an expanded deluxe edition, which includes an additional eight tracks with covers by Alice Cooper, Ronnie Spector and Darlene Love to name a few. Limited to 1,000 copies, the deluxe edition comes packaged in a housing that resembles McCartney’s legendary Hoffner bass with goodies like a hardcover book, a making-of DVD, artwork signed by Alan Aldridge, and a price tag that reads “your first born child” (speculating, but you know it won’t be cheap and/or easy to find).
As far as the actual music goes, most of these covers are pretty faithful to the source material for better or worse — maybe better given the audible vomit the Flaming Lips barfed onto us in the form of a recent Sgt. Pepper’s cover album ... but I digress. Willie Nelson gives “Yesterday” a barren, soul-bearing vibe much like his Chipolte commercial cover of Coldplay’s “The Scientist.” Bob Dylan turns “Things We Said Today” into an ominous, empty-bar shuffle that’s eerily analogous to the True Detective theme. The bigger, more boisterous numbers — Billy Joel’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” and “Live and Let Die,” Roger Daltrey’s “Helter Skelter,” Kiss’s “Rock Show” — feel glossy and safe; understandable since the success of this thing likely falls on the baby-boomer demographic that prefers their nostalgia like their Starbucks Venti French Roasts: un-fucked with.
Listen to the full album stream of The Art of McCartney below and follow along with the track list right after that.
The Art of McCartney Track List:
1. Billy Joel - "Maybe I'm Amazed"
2. Bob Dylan - "Things We Said Today"
3. Heart - "Band on the Run"
4. Steve Miller - "Junior's Farm"
5. Yusuf Islam - "The Long and Winding Road"
6. Harry Connick, Jr. - "My Love"
7. Brian Wilson - "Wanderlust"
8. Corinne Bailey Rae - "Bluebird"
9. Willie Nelson - "Yesterday"
10. Jeff Lynne - "Junk"
11. Barry Gibb - "When I'm 64"
12. Jamie Cullum - "Every Night"
13. Kiss - "Venus and Mars"/"Rock Show"
14. Paul Rodgers - "Let Me Roll It"
15. Roger Daltrey - "Helter Skelter"
16. Def Leppard - "Helen Wheels"
17. The Cure, featuring James McCartney - "Hello Goodbye"
18. Billy Joel - "Live and Let Die"
19. Chrissie Hynde - "Let It Be"
20. Cheap Trick's Robin Zander and Rick Nielsen - "Jet"
21. Joe Elliott - "Hi Hi Hi"
22. Heart - "Letting Go"
23. Steve Miller - "Hey Jude"
24. Owl City - "Listen to What the Man Said"
25. Perry Farrell - "Got to Get You Into My Life"
26. Dion - "Drive My Car"
27. Allen Toussaint - "Lady Madonna"
28. Dr. John - "Let 'Em In"
29. Smokey Robinson - "So Bad"
30. The Airborne Toxic Event - "No More Lonely Nights"
31. Alice Cooper - "Eleanor Rigby"
32. Toots Hibbert with Sly & Robbie - "Come and Get It"
33. B.B. King - "On the Way"
34. Sammy Hagar - "Birthday"
