Paul McCartney has delayed the release of his forthcoming new solo album ‘McCartney III’ due to “unforeseeable production delays”.

The record is the long-awaited final part of the ‘McCartney’ solo album trilogy, following on from ‘McCartney’ in April 1970 and ‘McCartney II’ in May 1980.

After previously setting a December 11 release date, ‘McCartney III’ will now arrive a week later on December 18.

“Unforeseeable production delays have forced the release date of Paul’s all-new all-Paul album ‘McCartney III’ to be moved back one week to December 18, 2020,” McCartney’s social media accounts announced yesterday (November 19).

“Thank you to everyone for your patience, support and excitement for the album. We can’t wait for you to hear it!”

Speaking about ‘McCartney III’ to mark its announcement last month, the Beatle explained: “I was living lockdown life on my farm with my family and I would go to my studio every day. I had to do a little bit of work on some film music and that turned into the opening track and then when it was done I thought what will I do next?

“I had some stuff I’d worked on over the years but sometimes time would run out and it would be left half-finished so I started thinking about what I had.

“Each day I’d start recording with the instrument I wrote the song on and then gradually layer it all up, it was a lot of fun. It was about making music for yourself rather than making music that has to do a job. So, I just did stuff I fancied doing. I had no idea this would end up as an album.”

You can pre-order Paul McCartney’s ‘McCartney III’ here.

In a recent fan Q&A session on his website, McCartney explained why it was “quite liberating” to work on the forthcoming album.