Paul McCartney Releases New Single “Days We Left Behind” Along With New Album Announcement

Along with a new single release, Sir Paul McCartney has announced an upcoming new album. The Boys of Dungeon Lane will be released on May 29. The new single, “Days We Left Behind,” reflects on McCartney’s upbringing in Liverpool. In a post to Instagram, McCartney explains, “The album title comes from a lyric in the track ‘Days We Left Behind.’ I was thinking just that, about the days I left behind and I do often wonder if I’m just writing about the past, but then I think, how can you write about anything else?”

McCartney went on to say in a statement, “It’s just a lot of memories of Liverpool. It involves a bit in the middle about John and Forthlin Road, which is the street I used to live on. Dungeon Lane is near there. I used to live in a place called Speke, which is quite working class. We didn’t have much at all, but it didn’t matter because all the people were great and you didn’t notice you didn’t have much.” The street is within walking distance of Paul McCartney’s and George Harrison’s childhood homes.

Andrew Watt serves as producer on the new album. Previously, Watt worked with Ozzy Osbourne on Ordinary Man and Patient Number 9, The Rolling Stones on Hackney Diamonds, and Elton John’s album with Brandi Carlile, Who Believes In Angels? Additionally, Watt has worked with Lady Gaga, Miley Cyrus, Pearl Jam, Justin Bieber, and Post Malone.

Writing ‘The Boys of Dungeon Lane’ Has Been a Five Year Process

The origins of the new album come from a meeting between McCartney and Watt. During the meeting, McCartney was strumming a guitar and came across a chord he wasn’t familiar with. This was a rarity for McCartney, so he continued to work on it, adding two more chords to the first. Watt liked what he heard and encouraged McCartney to finish the idea. This idea turned into the new album’s opening track, “As You Lie There.” McCartney played all the instruments on the track, much like his 1970 debut solo record, McCartney. Over the next five years, working on the album had to be squeezed into the schedule between McCartney’s global touring.

The new album was promoted with teaser flyers posted around Liverpool. Additionally, McCartney’s account texted fans a link to a Google Maps page that showed an image of a boy running across Dungeon Lane holding a sign with the new album logo on it. On Wednesday, March 25, McCartney’s Instagram posted a black and white photo of McCartney in the late 1950s, a photo taken by George Harrison. This generated theories of a new release, which was confirmed on the morning of March 26. The Boys of Dungeon marks Paul McCartney’s 27th studio release and will be released on May 29, 2026.