HE might well now be amongst the elder statesmen of the music world but when it comes to ‘live’ performance ability, there are still few artists of any age who can compete with Paul McCartney.

Having a catalogue filled with many of the finest songs ever written at his disposal is, of course, an enormous head start on the rest but being able to play and perform these songs today with the same levels of enthusiasm, energy and passion as he did some forty something years ago, and in many instances, playing them to an even higher standard, is remarkable and a great credit to his talents and professionalism.

‘Good Evening New York City’(Mercury) is a CD/DVD set that captures in stunning digital sound and vision, Macca at his very best, recorded in concert over three nights last July at the Citi Field stadium in the district of Queens, on the site of, what was formerly Shea Stadium, where the Beatles played and triumphed in 1965.

Back then, his set with the Beatles lasted little more than thirty-five minutes but in 2009, he treated his adoring audience to a two hour plus dazzling tour de force that spectacularly traced all his musical steps from his days as one quarter of the greatest group of all time through his solo years and Wings period right up to, pretty much, the present day.

There’s a couple of choice cuts from the latter-day album, ‘Memory Almost Full’, there’s even two songs from the work he recorded as The Fireman and two from the ‘Flaming Pie’ album as well as the Wings classics ‘Band On The Run’ and ‘Jet’ and his beautiful, early post Beatles composition, ‘My Love’. But as expected, it is still, after all these years, the Beatles songs McCartney chooses to play that thrill the most and that generate the greatest crowd reaction. And there’s still something very special about hearing and seeing these tunes played and sung by the man who wrote/co-wrote the vast majority of them.

It’s hard to tire of songs like ‘The Long And Winding Road’, ‘Let It Be’, ‘Yesterday’, ‘I Saw Her Standing There’ and ‘Hey Jude’, no matter how many hundreds of times you’ve heard them before. And McCartney doesn’t forget to give a nod to Lennon via ‘Day Tripper’ and ‘Give Peace A Chance’ and also George, in a very poignant section of the show, when he delicately plays ‘Something’ on Harrison’s own ukulele.

‘Good Evening New York City’ is lavishly presented and is available in triple or quadruple disc format but, whichever version you plump for, you’ll doubtless be moved by a stellar performance from a bona fide legend that is for more than just a nostalgia trip.

Hot Chip have been around for a decade now, in which time they have released three albums, become favourites on the festival scene and made some pretty damn good music videos. ‘One Life Stand’, their newly released fourth studio album is the follow-up to 2007’s ‘Made In The Dark’ and definitely stands as their best work to date.

Although they certainly don’t look like quintessential pop stars with their rather nerdy fashion sense, Hot Chip’s individual brand of, what is probably most accurately termed, electronic dance tunes, is rarely less than fascinating and engaging. The reference points and influences for the group’s music are fairly clearly identifiable, being centred around funk, disco, golden age electronica, gospel, Southern and Northern soul, 80’s House, R&B and authentic pop but they have a definite way of blending all these genres with their own musical idiosyncrasies to produce an exciting potpourri of sounds.

Where their previous albums have perhaps lacked some melodic substance, the same can certainly not be said about ‘One Life Stand’ as it feels as though this time around, the band have made a concerted effort to ensure that melody is a key ingredient of the end product, as epitomised by the title track and first single. There’s also much more of a real warmth to their brand of dancefloor grooves than has previously existed in their music with the best examples being ‘Slush’ , the anthemic ‘Hand Me Down Your Love’, ‘Thieves In The Night’ and ‘Alley Cats’.

This is music not to get too serious about for it’s fun and brimming over with effervescence and come December time, Hot Chip’s ‘One Life Stand’ will surely feature in many a critic’s ‘albums of the year’ list.