10 Best Rock Music Album Openers Of The 2020s So Far
1. Long Tailed Winter Bird - McCartney III (Paul McCartney)
At the end of 2020, legendary musician/grandpa Paul McCartney released McCartney III, 40 years after McCartney II.
How was it? It was... fine. Most of the songs suffer from McCartney's voice and some of the songwriting is painful. There's a track called Lavatory Lil, which is just as cringey as it sounds.
Thankfully, the ex-Beatle chose to open this album up with, and this is no word of a lie, one of his best songs ever.
A largely instrumental piece anchored around a fantastic acoustic guitar riff, Long Tailed Winter Bird began was initially written for a film, until Macca extended it out whilst stuck in lockdown. The end result is a wild cacophony of bluesy rock and some of the star's most adventurous guitar work in years.
It could be argued that the lyrics are just for show, but there's ecological undertone to them. McCartney saying "Do you miss me?" about a winter bird could be a comment on the decline of native species, which would fit with his eco values.
The rest of this album might not have shaped up so well, but McCartney III gave us one more great Paul song, and that counts for a lot.