Kisses On The Bottom

Once you've stopped giggling at the title, there's a sweet, heartfelt record to be found under here.

Paul McCartney – ever the laconic Liverpudlian wit – will have enjoyed the startled faces but his new album's name is a lift from Fats Waller's I'm Gonna Sit Right Down And Write Myself A Letter, the opening track on this collection of standards that enlivened his childhood. Much of Macca's dotage has been spent reviving pre-Beatles faves; rarely though has he sounded so involved.

The real masterstroke was co-opting US jazz singer Diana Krall and her band. Krall confines herself to her piano, her band to some deft, understated playing – and they provide a sympathetic bed for McCartney's delicate croon, their supper-club jazz swing utterly authentic and never showy.

If McCartney's upper register strains here and there – particularly breathless on Home (When Shadows Fall) – his sincerity wins through, and Always and More I Cannot Wish You are particularly convincing.

There are originals too: Eric Clapton adds some fills to My Valentine, a latter-day Macca classic that stands out even in this company, and Stevie Wonder brings wonderfully warm harmonica to the otherwise flimsy Only Our Hearts. In the end the album is what it is – a man with nothing to prove doing exactly what he wants. He's earned the freedom.

Album Review by Matthew Horton