The Boys of Dungeon Lane by Paul McCartney is an autobiographical work inspired by his childhood in Liverpool.
Across fourteen tracks, he reflects on his memories, youthful friendships, and the passage of time.
Musically, the album blends melodic pop, rock, intimate ballads, and psychedelic influences.
Songs such as Days We Left Behind and Mountain Top showcase the album’s emotional depth and rich sonic landscape.
Praised by both critics and fans, it is regarded as one of McCartney’s most personal and accomplished projects in many years.

For this review, you will find 2 versions tested:

• Ed 1: Tidal Max – 2026
• Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026

Below you will find the description of the different editions, as well as the measurements of each edition in the following chapters.

This review also features an enhanced spatial representation of sound. A color gradient has been added to reflect perceived height: sounds that remain at the level of the main speakers are displayed in blue, while their color gradually shifts toward red as they rise higher. This visualization makes it easier to observe the elevation of sounds within the room.

The synthesis of the review are available here

The album is composed of 14 tracks:

1. As You Lie There
2. Lost Horizon
3. Days We Left Behind
4. Ripples in a Pond
5. Mountain Top
6. Down South
7. We Two
8. Come Inside
9. Never Know
10. Home to Us
11. Life Can Be Hard
12. First Star of the Night
13. Salesman Saint
14. Momma Gets By

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Tidal Max – 2026

Presentation

This is the Tidal MAX version presented in lossless format 24 bits 96 kHz.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR7

The waveform of the Tidal Max – 2026 version shows a low dynamic range confirmed with DR7.

The spectrogram shows that the signal rises above 20 kHz with signal up to 48 kHz due to the 96 kHz sampling frequency.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Max – 2026.
The spectrum shows that the signal rises to 48 kHz (yellow arrow) with no signal above this frequency due to the 96 kHz sampling frequency.

Synthesis and listening

Paul McCartney presents his new album, The Boys of Dungeon Lane. Given the artist’s stature and reputation, one might have expected a more respectful treatment of the music, rather than a stereo version suffering from heavy dynamic compression.
Fortunately, a more intimate track such as Days We Left Behind is less affected by the excessive compression that impacts most of the other songs. This is particularly disappointing considering that the album is available in a high-resolution 24-bit / 96 kHz format.
As is often the case nowadays, listeners will likely need to turn to the Dolby Atmos version to enjoy a more open presentation and better-preserved dynamics.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●ooo (2)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●oo (3)

Ed 2: Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026

Presentation

This the Dolby Atmos version encoded in Dolby Digital Plus (lossy format) at 768 kBits/s.

Below the spatialization for all tracks. Click on the images to zoom in.

Below, a color gradient has been added to reflect perceived height: sounds that remain at the level of the main speakers are displayed in blue, while their color gradually shifts toward red as they rise higher. This visualization makes it easier to observe the elevation of sounds within the room.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR14

The waveform of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026 shows a high range confirmed with DR14.

The spectrogram of the Tidal Dolby Atmos track in 7.1.4 is limited to 20kHz with no signal above. This limitation is due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding, which is a lossy encoder that limits bandwidth to optimize data size for a bit rate of 768 kbits/s. The bass channel (LFE) is filtered at 120 Hz.

The graph below represents the spectrum of the Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026.
The spectrum of Dolby Atmos version decoded in 7.1 shows that all channels (without LFE) are used in this sample. The white arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 20 kHz due to Dolby Digital Plus encoding. The yellow arrow indicates the high-frequency limit at 24 kHz due to encoding at the 48 kHz sampling frequency used.

Synthesis and listening

With this Dolby Atmos version, the full dynamic range of the recording is finally restored. Even The Boys of Dungeon Lane delivers a more lively and dynamic presentation than its stereo counterpart.
On this track, the sound is more intimate, with the soundstage primarily focused toward the front. However, the Atmos mix varies from one song to another. For example, Mountain Top offers a more immersive experience, with a spacious sound throughout the listening environment, making good use of the format’s capabilities.
It is nevertheless unfortunate that a lossless Atmos version, such as Dolby TrueHD, is not available. Such a release would preserve all the subtlety, detail, and refinement captured in the original recording.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●o (4)
• Spatialization SP: ●●●●●ooooo (5.1), SK: ●●●●oooooo (4)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4)

It is unfortunate to see a new album by an artist of this stature handled in such a way, particularly with such heavy use of dynamic limiting on the stereo version. Paul McCartney does not need loudness processing for a new album to succeed.
In this context, it becomes preferable to turn to the Dolby Atmos version in order to recover the full dynamic range of the recording, along with a more refined and evolving spatial presentation depending on the tracks
However, it is regrettable that listeners must rely only on a Dolby Digital Plus encode, a lossy format that slightly reduces the subtlety and precision of the sound reproduction.

Dynamic Range measurements are shown below.

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Measurements

Dynamic Range comparaisons

Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest. The target is to compare the dynamics of the music and not of the media (CD, digital files or vinyl).

For our 2 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :

	Tidal Max – 2026	Tidal Dolby Atmos – 2026
Global	DR7	DR14
Min	DR6	DR11
Max	DR9	DR19
As You Lie There	DR06	DR15
Lost Horizon	DR07	DR13
Days We Left Behind	DR08	DR11
Ripples in a Pond	DR06	DR14
Mountain Top	DR06	DR15
Down South	DR09	DR16
We Two	DR07	DR19
Come Inside	DR07	DR14
Never Know	DR06	DR13
Home to Us	DR06	DR13
Life Can Be Hard	DR08	DR13
First Star of the Night	DR08	DR11
Salesman Saint	DR09	DR17
Momma Gets By	DR08	DR12

As a reminder, the scale goes from 0 to more 20, but the dynamics are considered good from 12, quite good between 10 and 11, and deteriorate below 10.

Detail of the ratings :

• Dynamic :
  1. Significant dynamic compression, DR less than 7
  2. Compression of the present dynamics, DR between 7 and 9.
  3. Correct piece DR >=10
  4. No dynamic compression (DR >12), dynamic rendering
  5. No dynamic compression, high DR and very dynamic sound rendering
• Spectrum :
  1. Spectrum cut and less than 15 khz
  2. Spectrum cut at 15 khz
  3. Spectrum not conforming to the original and cut (not HD) or original but limited bandwidth (but less than 20 kHz)
  4. Spectrum conforming to the original (but not HD)
  5. Spectrum conforming to the original with HD resolution (higher than 24kHz)
• Surface noise (only for vinyl):
  1. Continuous audible noise
  2. Audible surface noise except on passages with a high level of noise
  3. Reduced surface noise, barely audible on low level crossings
  4. Low surface noise, very good quality
  5. Very low surface noise, no defects, almost inaudible on the quiet passages (exceptional disc)
• Spatialization :
  • Between 0 and 5 for 5.1 or 7.1 channels configuration
  • Between 0 and 10 for Atmos configuration (7.1.4)
  • For more information on spatialization, you can read the article describing this parameter here.
• Restitution :
  1. Low quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  2. Average quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  3. Quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Good record.
  4. High quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Very high level disc.
  5. Maximum quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Exceptional disc.

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