“We need to find a place where we can be alone/ To spend some special time without an interruption.”
That’s Paul McCartney in “Come On to Me,” one of a pair of songs the Beatles legend released Wednesday ahead of a new solo album due in September.
Set over a swaggering rock beat (and punctuated by sharp brass blasts), “Come On to Me” makes good on its title, with McCartney play-by-playing his response to someone who’s evidently expressed a certain interest in him.
“I saw you flash a smile that seemed to me to say/ You wanted so much more than casual conversation,” he sings.
Here in the #MeToo era, one girds oneself for what might come next from a 76-year-old showbiz veteran.
But it turns out Sir Paul is pretty respectful. The chorus of “Come On to Me” has him clarifying, more or less, that this person actually wants to leave a party with him.
McCartney’s other new tune, “I Don’t Know,” suggests the aftermath of rejection.
It’s a moody ballad with “Hey Jude”-ish piano in which he’s bumming around the house, wondering what he’s doing wrong.
“I try to love you best as I can,” he sings, “But you know that I’m only a man.”
Awww. (Or maybe: Awww?)
“Come On to Me” and “I Don’t Know” are the first tastes from “Egypt Station,” McCartney’s first studio album since 2013’s “New.”
After “New,” he made several singles with Kanye West (including “Only One” and the great “FourFiveSeconds”), and apparently he enjoyed the proximity to today’s hitmakers: For the upcoming record, he recruited producer Greg Kurstin, known for his work with Kelly Clarkson and Halsey.
McCartney wants you to know he’s not trying to be Taylor Swift. In a statement the singer said he liked the title “Egypt Station” because “it reminded me of the ‘album’ albums we used to make.”
The project, due Sept. 7, “starts off at the station on the first song, and then each song is like a different station,” he added. “I think of it as a dream location that the music emanates from.”
