Memory Almost Full

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title: "Memory Almost Full" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["2007-albums", "paul-mccartney-albums", "albums-produced-by-david-kahne", "hear-music-albums", "albums-recorded-at-rak-studios", "albums-recorded-at-a&m-studios", "albums-recorded-at-air-studios"] topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_Almost_Full" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::data[format=table title="Infobox album"]

Field	Value
name	Memory Almost Full
type	studio
artist	Paul McCartney
cover	Memory_Almost_Full.jpg
border	yes
released
recorded	October 2003, February 2004
March 2006 – February 2007
studio	Abbey Road, AIR and RAK, London; Henson Recording, Los Angeles; Hogg Hill Mill, Icklesham
genre
length	42:00
label	Hear Music
producer	David Kahne
prev_title	Ecce Cor Meum
prev_year	2006
next_title	Amoeba's Secret
next_year	2007
misc	{{Singles
name	Memory Almost Full
type	Studio
single1	Ever Present Past
single1date	20 April 2007
single2	Dance Tonight
single2date	18 June 2007
single3	Nod Your Head
single3date	28 August 2007
::

| name = Memory Almost Full | type = studio | artist = Paul McCartney | cover = Memory_Almost_Full.jpg | border = yes | alt = | released = | recorded = October 2003, February 2004 March 2006 – February 2007 | studio = Abbey Road, AIR and RAK, London; Henson Recording, Los Angeles; Hogg Hill Mill, Icklesham | genre = | length = 42:00 | label = Hear Music | producer = David Kahne | prev_title = Ecce Cor Meum | prev_year = 2006 | next_title = Amoeba's Secret | next_year = 2007 | misc = {{Singles | name = Memory Almost Full | type = Studio | single1 = Ever Present Past | single1date = 20 April 2007 | single2 = Dance Tonight | single2date = 18 June 2007 | single3 = Nod Your Head | single3date = 28 August 2007 Memory Almost Full is the fourteenth solo studio album by English musician Paul McCartney. It was released in the United Kingdom on 4 June 2007 and in the United States a day later. The album was the first release on Starbucks' Hear Music label. It was produced by David Kahne and recorded at Abbey Road Studios, Henson Recording Studios, AIR Studios, Hog Hill Mill Studios and RAK Studios between October 2003, and from 2006 to February 2007. In between the 2003 and 2006 sessions, McCartney was working on another studio album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard (2005), with producer Nigel Godrich.

Memory Almost Full reached the Top 5 in both the UK and US, as well as Denmark, Sweden, Greece, and Norway. The Grammy-nominated album has sold over 2 million copies worldwide and has been certified gold by the RIAA for shipments of over 500,000 copies just in the United States. The album was released in three versions: a single disc, a 2-CD set, and a CD/DVD deluxe edition, the latter of which was released on 6 November 2007.

Background

Nine demos were recorded at Hog Hill Mill studio in September 2003 by Paul McCartney and his touring band. A month later, in October, was released as its own CD, separate from the Memory Almost Full album.|group="nb"}} However, the sessions were cut short and put on hiatus when McCartney started another album, Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, with producer Nigel Godrich.

In the website constructed for the album, McCartney stated: "I actually started this album, Memory Almost Full, before my last album Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, released September 2005. (...) When I was just finishing up everything concerned with Chaos and had just got the Grammy nominations (2006) I realised I had this album to go back to and finish off. So I got it out to listen to it again, wondering if I would enjoy it, but actually I really loved it. All I did at first was just listen to a couple of things and then I began to think, 'OK, I like that track – now, what is wrong with it?' And it might be something like a drum sound, so then I would re-drum and see where we would get to. (...) In places it's a very personal record and a lot of it is retrospective, drawing from memory, like memories from being a kid, from Liverpool and from summers gone. The album is evocative, emotional, rocking, but I can't really sum it up in one sentence".

Recording

Many songs from Memory Almost Full were from a group of songs, which also included songs from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard, and some intended for the former nearly ended up on the latter. Two years after the 2003 session, sessions for the album started again. The book Paul McCartney: Recording Sessions (1969–2013). A Journey Through Paul McCartney's Songs After the Beatles reports that the recordings of the album were started in September–October 2003 and resumed in February 2004 at Abbey Road, with other sessions taking place between March 2006 and February 2007.

New tracks were recorded at the following studios: McCartney's home studio in Sussex, Hog Hill Mill, Los Angeles' Henson Studios, London's RAK Studios and AIR Studios, and New York's SeeSquared Studios. as the last song recorded for the album. The album was mixed by Kahne and Andy Wallace.

Songs

In an interview with Billboard magazine in May 2007, McCartney said that the album's material was "in some ways a little bit retrospective. Some of them are of now, some of them hark back to the past, but all of them are songs I'm very proud of." McCartney played mandolin on the song "Dance Tonight". "You Tell Me" is about McCartney's memories of his previous wife, Linda.

"Mr Bellamy", the sixth song on the album, was thought by online fans to be about McCartney's then-recent divorce. McCartney invited Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke to play piano on the song, but he declined. The press ran articles claiming that Yorke had "snubbed" McCartney, but Yorke later revealed that he "really liked the song" but felt he would be unable to perform to the required standard. "Gratitude" is reportedly about the divorce between Heather Mills and McCartney.

The album features a five song-medley (starting off with “Vintage Clothes“ and ending with “The End of the End“), which in an interview with Billboard magazine, McCartney said that it was previously "something I wanted to revisit" as "nobody had been doing that for a while." It was followed by the bass-led "That Was Me", which is about his "school days and teachers", the medley, as McCartney stated, then "progressed from there." The next songs are "Feet in the Clouds", about the inactivity while one is growing up, and "House of Wax", about the life of being a celebrity. The final song in medley, "The End of the End", was written at McCartney's Cavendish Avenue home while playing on his father, Jim's, piano.

Packaging

Some people mentioned that the album's title, Memory Almost Full, is an anagram of "for my soulmate LLM" (the initials of Linda Louise McCartney). In an interview with Pitchfork Media, McCartney clarified, "I must say, someone told me [there is an anagram], and I think it's a complete mystery, because it's so complete. There does appear to be an anagram in the title. And it's a mystery. It was not intentional." The album's title was actually inspired by a message that came up on his mobile phone. He thought the phrase summed up modern life.

A significant proportion of the CD release of Memory Almost Full incorporated a cover insert whose top-right corner was intentionally folded down to the center of the insert, leaving the CD tray visible. The folded-down white corner covers up the corner of the armchair image, but has the artist and album names printed so that the text is complete despite the fold. Upon opening and flattening out the cover insert, the armchair is complete, but the portion of the text which is printed on the folded-down corner is not printed on the front of the cover, leaving the text incomplete. This was the first time such an artistic intervention occurred within a standard jewel-case, and at first glance had the possibility of being viewed as a mis-manufactured copy. McCartney on the CD case/album artwork stated, "I really wanted to make the CD a desirable object. Something that I know I'd want to pick up from the shelf, something that would make people curious."

The chair on the cover is the etching Black Love Chair by Humphrey Ocean printed by Maurice Payne and chosen by Paul McCartney after a visit to Miankoma Studio, Amagansett, Long Island.

Release and promotion

The album was his first for Starbucks' Hear Music record label, after previously having a 45-year-old relationship with Capitol/EMI. The recording contract with Capitol/EMI ended a few months prior to the release of the album, McCartney was the first artist to sign to Hear Music. The Rock Radio website leaked a track listing for the album on 12 April 2007. A day later, producer David Kahne stated on the same site that the leaked listing was bogus. The first US single, "Ever Present Past", made its radio debut on 20 April. A music video for "Dance Tonight" premiered on 23 May via YouTube.

It was also McCartney's first album to be available as a digital download. The music video features Natalie Portman and Mackenzie Crook, and was directed by Michel Gondry. The third single, "Nod Your Head", was released as a digital download single on 28 August via the iTunes Store. "Ever Present Past" was released as a single in the UK, on 5 November, as a CD single and 7" single.

Promotion for the album came in several forms, such as a worldwide listening party at over 10,000 Starbucks stores on the day of the album's US release, with an approximation of 6 million people hearing the album.

Reception

Memory Almost Full received positive reaction. At Metacritic, the album earned an average score of 69 based on 23 reviews from critics, which indicates "generally favorable reviews". Neil Spencer of The Observer remarked that a substantial portion of Memory Almost Full was reminiscent of McCartney's solo band Wings at their best, particularly their album Band on the Run; Spencer found it to be "a way more focused album [from McCartney] than usual." *Entertainment Weekly*s Chris Willman noted the album's nostalgic lyrical themes "drifting toward weightier thoughts on mortality and the passing of time," likening the album to a more pop-friendly version of Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind (1997) and hailing it McCartney's best work since Flowers in the Dirt (1989). Evan Serpick of Rolling Stone magazine compared the medley of five songs in the second part of the album to the medley in the Beatles' Abbey Road. *The A.V. Club*s Steven Hyden did likewise, praising McCartney's signature "insanely catchy fragments" throughout the album and dubbing the project "an eccentric triumph".

musicOMH staffer Jenni Cole saw Memory Almost Full as an effort flush with "perfect pop songs" which were influenced by various musical themes and motifs throughout McCartney’s career, pondering if the title and nostalgia in the music could qualify as a retrospective on his career. She observed that "See Your Sunshine" and "Vintage Clothes" sounded as if they could have been songs for Wings, while "Ever Present Past" harkened back to McCartney's work in the early 1980s. AllMusic reviewer Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that despite McCartney having "mortality on the mind," the album "is startlingly bright and frequently lively", starkly contrasting the downcast nature of Chaos and Creation in the Backyard.

Pitchfork gave the record a mixed response, with Stuart Berman criticising the album's marketing strategy with Starbucks and dismissing the opening track "Dance Tonight" as stereotypically "too safe, too typical, too square". However, he ultimately conceded that it was "a lot more idiosyncratic than its coffee-chain marketing plan suggests," praising the album's second half especially. Jude Rogers of The Guardian expected a "sorrowful, sombre, post-divorce album," but was surprised to find that "Gratitude" seemed to be the only one with much reference to the subject. On the other hand, Rogers lamented that "his frequent, chirpy nods to his past [...] sound lumpishly heavy." In his review for the The Los Angeles Times, Randy Lewis found the album to be occasionally over-indulgent in nostalgia, opining that "his sugary romanticism often goes unchecked in this virtual one-man show."

This album was ranked number 22 on *Rolling Stone*s list of the Top 50 Albums of 2007.

Commercial performance

In the US, Memory Almost Full debuted at number 3 on the Billboard 200 with about 161,000 copies sold within the first week, making it McCartney's highest-charting album there since 1997's Flaming Pie. 47% of the album sales from the opening week were from Starbucks coffee shops, While it was announced that copies of the album sold in the Starbucks coffee shops in the UK would not be counted by the Official UK Charts, because they are not registered in the copies counting system, Memory Almost Full, however, still managed to hit number 5 on the UK Album Charts. The album also peaked at number 1 on Billboard Internet Sales Chart, and number 3 on Billboard Top Internet Albums Downloads.

It was ranked at number 90 on the top-100 of the Billboard Year-end chart, and number 177 on the UK year-end chart. The album won awards for the Best PR Campaign award at the Music Week Awards ceremony, and the Online/Digital Campaign award by New Media Age. The album reportedly sold 105,000 copies in his homeland before the standard version of the CD in a unique slip-case was given away free as part of a promotion with British newspaper The Mail on Sunday (18 May 2008).

"Ever Present Past" peaked at number 10 on the Billboard Bubbling Under Hot 100, and charted at number 16 on the Adult Contemporary chart. "Dance Tonight" peaked at number 46 on Hot Digital Songs, number 58 on the Pop 100, and finally at number 69 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Track listing

All songs written by Paul McCartney.

| headline = Japanese bonus track | title14 = Why So Blue | length14 = 3:11 | total_length = 45:10

Personnel

Personnel per booklet. ;Musicians Paul McCartney – all instruments except for "Only Mama Knows", "You Tell Me", "Vintage Clothes", "That Was Me", "Feet in the Clouds", and "House of Wax", where he was joined by the following musicians (all from his touring band):

Paul Wickens – keyboards
Rusty Anderson – guitar
Brian Ray – bass
Abe Laboriel Jr. – drums ;Production
David Kahne – producer and programming
Adam Noble, David Kahne, Steve Orchard, Geoff Emerick, Paul Hicks – engineers
Jamie Kirkham, Eddie Klein, Adam Noble, Chris Bolster, Kevin Mills, Mirek Stiles – assistant engineers
David Kahne, Andy Wallace – mixing
Bob Ludwig – mastering
Humphrey Ocean – cover art front: black love chair (aquatint) and cover art back: black love chair (gouache)
Max Vadukul – inlay photography
Rebecca and Mike – ideas

Grammy nominations

Memory Almost Full has been nominated in the following categories:

Best Pop Vocal Album for Memory Almost Full (2008)
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "Dance Tonight" (2008)
Best Solo Rock Vocal Performance for "Only Mama Knows" (2008)
Best Male Pop Vocal Performance for "That Was Me" (2009)

Charts

Weekly charts

::data[format=table] | Chart (2007) | Peak position | European Albums Chart | Greek Albums (IFPI) | Japanese Albums (Oricon) | Mexican Albums (AMPROFON) | |---|---|---|---|---|---| | 3 | | | | | | | 4 | | | | | | | 17 | | | | | | | 17 | | | | | | ::

Year-end charts

::data[format=table]

Chart (2007)	Position	French Albums (SNEP)	Italian Albums (FIMI)	UK Albums (OCC)	US Billboard 200	US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)
200
179
177
90
17
::

Certifications and sales

Notes:

On the article that Concord Music Group posted on their official site in February 2007 (a month before Memory Almost Full was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America), Hear Music announced that shipments of the album reached a platinum status in the US. The label also claimed that the album gained a gold in other countries like Norway, though International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has not certified the album at any label there as of 2014.

2007 mini-tour releases

In the summer and autumn of 2007, Paul embarked on a promotional mini-tour playing concerts to small audiences - including The Olympia, in Paris, when he performed with The Beatles in 1964 - all in support of his album Memory Almost Full. Four of the performances were later released in various formats.

The Electric Ballroom

Five songs from this 7 June 2007 show at the Electric Ballroom in London were released as video tracks on the Memory Almost Full deluxe edition bonus DVD (see Track Listing above).

Amoeba Gig

On 27 June 2007, Paul and his band played unannounced at Amoeba Music in Hollywood, California. The performance was released as follows:

in 2007, a 4-track EP called Amoeba's Secret
also in 2007, 4 tracks were released on B-sides of different versions of the single "Ever Present Past" (see table below)
in 2010, a 12-track UK/Ireland promotional CD called Live in Los Angeles
in 2012, a 14-track digital release on his website to premium members, called Live in Los Angeles – The Extended Set
in 2019, the full 21-song performance was finally released as Amoeba Gig

Amoeba performance track listings

::data[format=table]

Secret	EPP	L.A.	Ext.	Gig	Song	Length
		1	1	1	"Drive My Car"	2:41
1	UK CD	2	2	2	"Only Mama Knows"	3:47
	UK CD	3	3	3	"Dance Tonight"	3:25
2		4	4	4	"C Moon"	3:13
				5	"The Long and Winding Road"	3:34
				6	"I'll Follow the Sun"	2:56
				7	"Calico Skies"	2:57
3	iTunes	5	5	8	"That Was Me"	3:03
		6	6	9	"Blackbird"	3:44
		7	7	10	"Here Today"	3:13
		8	8	11	"Back in the U.S.S.R."	4:08
			9	12	"Nod Your Head"	2:00
	UK 7"		10	13	"House of Wax"	6:02
				14	"I've Got a Feeling"	5:56
				15	"Matchbox"	3:31
		9	11	16	"Get Back"	4:21
				17	"Baby Face"	0:54
		10	12	18	"Hey Jude"	8:01
				19	"Let It Be"	3:54
		11	13	20	"Lady Madonna"	3:34
4		12	14	21	"I Saw Her Standing There"	3:25
::

iTunes Festival: London

On 5 July 2007, Paul and his band played for 350 fans in the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) on The Mall in London as part of the first ever iTunes Festival. On 21 August 2007, a 6-track digital EP iTunes Festival: London became available only on iTunes. All tracks written by Paul McCartney except where noted.

BBC Electric Proms

On 25 October 2007 Paul and his band played the Roundhouse in London as part of the BBC Electric Proms 2007. The band was joined by a string section for "Only Mama Knows", "Calico Skies" and "Eleanor Rigby". More than seven years later, on 3 December 2014, 17 of the 24 songs from the concert were released on iTunes, but soon after removed inexplicably in February 2015.

The seven songs not released from this performance are "C Moon", "The Long and Winding Road", "I'll Follow the Sun", "That Was Me", "Here Today", "House of Wax" and "I've Got a Feeling".

References

; Footnotes

; Citations

References

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"(Searching results by albums entitled "Memory Almost Full")". [[Recording Industry Association of America]].
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"The McCartney Recording Sessions – 2007".
(20 May 2007). "Dance Tonight Press Release".
Cohen, Jonathan. (5 May 2007). "Sweet Sound".
(24 March 2008). "McCartney fans hail 'Mills' song". BBC News.
Colothan, Scott. (10 December 2007). "Thom Yorke Reveals Reason Behind Paul McCartney Snub". Gigwise.
Sounes, Howard. (2010). "Fab: An Intimate Life of Paul McCartney". HarperCollins.
Hattenstone, Simon. (19 May 2007). "There is a tunnel and there is light, and I will get there". The Guardian.
Dahlen, Chris. (21 May 2007). "Interview: Sir Paul McCartney". Pitchfork.
Erwin, Kathie T.. (2013). "Group Techniques for Aging Adults: Putting Geriatric Skills Enhancement into Practice". Brunner-Routledge.
Murphy, Kim. (3 June 2007). "Life for a man on the run". Los Angeles Times.
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(12 April 2007). "New Paul McCartney album tracklisting leaked". The Rock Radio.
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Calkin, Graham. "Memory Almost Full".
Cohen, Jonathan. (30 April 2007). "Paul McCartney Confirms New Album Track List".
(28 August 2007). "iTunes – Music – Nod Your Head – Single by Paul McCartney". iTunes Store.
Calkin, Graham. "Paul McCartney – Ever Present Past".
(2012). "Record Label Marketing". CRC Press.
Sexton, Paul. (19 May 2007). "Billboard Q&A: McCartney".
Cohen, Jonathan. (2 October 2007). "New Songs, Live DVD Jog McCartney's 'Memory'".
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Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "''Memory Almost Full'' – Paul McCartney : Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards". AllMusic.
Hyden, Steven. (June 19, 2007). "Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full".
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Rogers, Jude. (14 June 2007). "Paul McCartney, Memory Almost Full". The Guardian.
"Los Angeles Times review".
Cole, Jenni. (4 June 2007). "Paul McCartney – Memory Almost Full".
Spencer, Neil. (20 May 2007). "The Observer review". The Guardian.
Berman, Stuart. (4 June 2007). "Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full | Album Reviews".
Lundy, Zeth. (4 June 2007). "Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full".
Christgau, Robert. (30 May 2007). "Memory Almost Full : Paul McCartney : Review".
(15 May 2007). "Preview Paul McCartney's New Album, "Memory Almost Full"".
(17 December 2007). "The Top 50 Albums of 2007".
Hasty, Katie. (13 June 2007). "T-Pain Soars To No. 1 Ahead of Rihanna, McCartney".
Mayfield, Geoff. (23 June 2007). "McCartney Still Needed at 64; T-Pain Reigns".
(5 June 2007). "Paul McCartney's latest album faces sales battle". NME.
(14 June 2007). "Paul Tops Internet Chart".
"allmusic ((( Memory Almost Full > Charts & Awards > Billboard Albums )))". AllMusic.
"Billboard.BIZ – Year-end Charts – Billboard 200 – 2007".
(1 May 2007). "Memory Almost Full Wins An Industry Award".
(27 June 2008). "MAF Online Campaign Wins Award".
Brook, Stephen. (9 May 2008). "Mail on Sunday to give away free Paul McCartney album". [[The Guardian]].
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(2007). "Memory Almost Full". [[MPL Communications]] / [[Hear Music]].
(11 December 2007). "Message From Paul – Grammy Nominations – Paul McCartney Official Website".
(February 8, 2009). "Grammy Awards: List of Winners".
(23 June 2007). "Billboard – 07 July 2007".
(7 July 2007). "Billboard – 07 July 2007".
"Highest position and charting weeks of ''Memory Almost Full'' by Paul McCartney".
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"Top de l'année Top Albums 2007". SNEP.
"Hit Parade Italia – Gli album più venduti del 2007". hitparadeitalia.it.
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"Album Top–40: Uge 36 – 2007". [[IFPI Denmark]].
(2007). "Oricon Style Vol.32 (20 August 2007, No. 1405)". Oricon Entertainment.
(13 February 2012). "Official Chart Analysis: Lana Del Rey scores biggest-selling album of 2012, Gotye shifts another 83k". Music Week.
(18 February 2012). "Kisses From A Battle".
(12 February 2008). "Paul McCartney's "Memory Almost Full" Certified Platinum". [[Concord Music Group]].

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