Paris, Sept. 11 (AFP): In 1967 Paul McCartney wrote a song whose refrain plaintively asked “will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?”

Nearly 40 years later, at age 63, the ex-Beatle is about to release a new studio album and launch an American concert tour, and there is nothing to suggest that “Macca” ? as his fans calls him ? will go hungry or unloved any time soon.

Chaos and creation in the backyard, available on Tuesday in the US and tomorrow in the rest of the world, is McCartney’s 20th post-Beatles album, and his first studio effort since Driving Rain in 2001.

It is also, critics say, among his best since splitting from the fab four.

In contrast to most of his works since the 1980s, which has tended toward the easy-listening end of the pop music spectrum, Chaos and Creation is on a par with his most widely acclaimed albums, McCartney in 1970 and Ram ? done in collaboration with his wife, Linda ? in 1971.