Off the Ground: Paul McCartney in the 1990s

A sympathetic but clear-eyed exploration of Paul McCartney’s work in the 1990s, arguably his most important since the rise of the Beatles.

Paul McCartney’s 1990s was an era like no other, perhaps even the most significant decade of his entire career after the 1960s. Following a shakier 1980s, the decade would see McCartney reemerge with greater energy, momentum, and self-belief. JR Moores’s sympathetic but not uncritical new book explores McCartney’s ’90s, with its impressive studio and live albums, colossal tours, unexpected side-projects and imaginative collaborations, forays into classical composition, some new Beatles numbers, and a whole lot more besides. Moores reveals how McCartney’s reputation began to be perceived more generously by the public, and he argues that Macca’s output and activities in the ’90s would uncover more about the person behind them than in any other decade.

JR Moores is resident psych-rock columnist for both the Quietus and Record Collector, and his work has also appeared in the Wire, the Guardian, Bandcamp Daily, and Vice. He is the author of Electric Wizards: A Tapestry of Heavy Music, 1968 to the Present, also published by Reaktion Books.