By Kelsey Purcell, Staff Writer
Paul McCartney, a member of the iconic former English rock band, The Beatles, announced a new album, “McCartney III Imagined.” It features other artists recreating songs from “McCartney III.”
“McCartney III” is the singer’s 18th solo album. It is an 11-track album that was released on Dec. 18, 2020. The album is similar to “McCartney I” and “McCartney II” in the sense that McCartney himself is on the instruments for each song. He performed these three albums alone aside from occasional background vocals from his wife.
“McCartney III Imagined,” the re-envisioned album, is set to be released on April 16.
The re-imagined interpretation of “Find My Way” features American singer Beck. Dominic Fike, another artist, created a rendition of “The Kiss of Venus.” “Pretty Boys” features musical trio Khruangbin. St. Vincent made a remix of “Women And Wives.”
“Deep Down” is a remix by Blood Orange. “Seize The Day” features singer-songwriter Phoebe Bridgers. The “Imagined” version of “Slidin’ ” is a remix by EOB. Damon Albarn remixed “Long Tailed Winter Bird.”
“Lavatory Lil” was reimagined by Josh Homme. The remix of “When Winter Comes” is by Anderson Paak. “Deep Deep Feeling” is a 3D RDN Remix. The Idris Elba remix of “Long Tailed Winter Bird” is a physical exclusive.
“The Kiss of Venus” is the eighth track from “McCartney III” it was recreated by Dominic Fike on “McCartney III Imagined.” The song was pre-released in March as a promo for the new album. Fike delivers his alternative style in his R&B re-created rendition.
Both versions start the same with, “The kiss of Venus has got me on the go. She scored a bullseye in the early morning glow.”
McCartney’s original has a mellow sound. It is a simple, gentle melodious song as McCartney sings, “Packed with illusions, our world is turned around. This golden circle has the most harmonic sound.”
It sounds like something from The Beatles.
Fike adds new verses to the song. “Then I asked her, have you read the paper? Okay, people talkin’ about which side they’re takin’ and if you know then, baby, what’s your take on it?”
His delivery makes people question their point of view. He switches his sound from R&B to pop, then rock in the song and uses a lo-fi keyboard, drums, electric and acoustic guitars to accomplish this.
In a later verse, he sings “People talkin’ without no education, yeah. Look, go to college go find your major. Realize you’re minor in the scheme of everything.”
Here he makes a clever play on words and acknowledges that the world does not revolve around only you. Fike differentiates his rendition from McCartney’s.
The chorus is the same for both songs, “Reflected mountains is a lake. Is this too much to take? Asleep or wide awake? And if the world begins to shake will something have to break? Or would we stay awake?”
The melody also matches in both songs, though Fike’s addition of the electric guitar and put the song into more of a modern pop feel compared to McCartney’s.
Fike’s take on the song and the creativity of the music video revamped McCartney’s slowed down songs. He took “The Kiss of Venus” in a new direction and added a different meaning. The other artists revamping the rest of the songs from “McCartney III” likely did the same.
People can check out “McCartney III Imagined” on April 16 if they are interested in hearing different artists put their twist on McCartney’s songs.
purcellkr20@bonaventure.edu
