Paul McCartney and Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien have released “Slidin'”, the latest single to be shared from Macca’s upcoming remix album McCartney III Imagined. Stream the visualizer video below.
McCartney’s original version of “Slidin'” saw The Beatles bassist lean into garage fuzz while still maintaining his usual classic rock touch. With this remix, O’Brien gives the track a gruffer tone, sounding like a Radiohead B-side from the ’90s instead. He speeds the overall tempo up, blasts McCartney’s vocals so loud that it sounds like The Vines, and scales back the chorus to dramatically widen the gap between McCartney’s singing styles — all of which gives “Slidin'” an unstoppable modern edge. To be honest, it actually works surprisingly well.
During an interview with BBC Radio 6 Music, O’Brien revealed that he collaborated on the remix with producer Paul Epworth. “I really liked [‘Slidin”], and so I said to Paul Epworth, would you fancy getting stuck in?” he said. “He was really up for it. It was great. A moment of light in the darkness of the winter that’s just been. We had a lot of fun. Got into [McCartney’s] vocals and added some chaos, some guitar — my reference point was ‘Helter Skelter’. Ramp up the intensity!”
Take a listen below.
This is the third remix to be shared from McCartney III Imagined, following Beck’s take on “Find My Way” and Dominic Fike’s rendition of “The Kiss of Venus”. So far, all three previews make good on Macca’s promise for this new record to be a creative reimagining of his 2020 solo effort McCartney III. With a list of collaborators like St. Vincent, Damon Albarn, Josh Homme, and Phoebe Bridgers also linked to the project, it will surely be worth the wait to hear the album in full when it drops on April 16th via Capitol Records.
Around this time last year, O’Brien released his debut solo album Earth under his moniker EOB. That record was a long time coming for the Radiohead multi-instrumentalist and saw him branch out into meditative music, find inspiration in Foals, and even pen a collaborative track with Laura Marling. Since then, he’s been busy with Radiohead while the band uploads cryptic videos to TikTok and releases previously hard-to-find footage of their old shows.
