Paul McCartney to release album in 2012

Paul McCartney has revealed that he will release a new album next year.

The former Beatle has compiled an as-yet-untitled LP, which features covers of songs he grew up listening to, as well as two new tracks.

The official release date has been confirmed as February 6 2012.

The song list has not yet been released but Paul described what inspired the recordings.

"When I kind of got into songwriting, I realised how well structured these songs were and I think I took a lot of my lessons from them," he said in a statement.

"I always thought artists like Fred Astaire were very cool. Writers like Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, all of those guys - I just thought the songs were magical. And then, as I got to be a songwriter I thought 'it's beautiful, the way they made those songs'."

The album also has guest appearances from other legendary artists such as Stevie Wonder and Eric Clapton and features Diana Krall and her band.

Paul explained what the atmosphere was like in the studio during recording sessions.

"It was very spontaneous, kind of organic, which then reminded me of the way we'd work with The Beatles," he mused. "We'd bring a song in, kick it around, when we found a way to do it we'd say 'Okay, let's do a take now' and by the time everyone kind of had an idea of what they were doing, we'd learnt the song. So that's what we did, we did the take live in the studio."

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