THE BEATLES
[2LP/3CD/4LP/6CDs+BluRay]
(Apple/Capitol)
During the last few years, The Beatles’ 1968 self-titled album has grown into my favorite. The White Album is always examined in the continuum of Beatles records as the one where they started to go their separate ways. However, the latest reissue goes a long way to proving that this embarrassment of riches is actually the result of the band coming back together yet again.
Historically speaking, The White Album followed the first real Beatles failure. While it was well received as a set of songs, the ambitiousness of 1967’s “Sgt. Pepper” overextended their move to the underwhelming film “Magical Mystery Tour.” So the Fab Four regrouped in India and studied meditation with the Maharishi. After day-long sessions, Lennon and McCartney were then secretly collaborating after hours in their rooms.
Fast forward to the tumultuous summer of 1968. The Beatles are booked into not one, but two, studios at Abbey Road. However, the tracks are just not coming together with the ease they did before. So, the band and their wives and girlfriends are all packed into a spartan room just working it out and recording everything. They mean everything. Long, lengthy jams. Short, silly bursts of song. “The Beatles” is best viewed through the lens of the band becoming just that.
Technologically speaking, the world of recording is becoming far more accessible. With small reel-to-reel recorders, the band captures their new songs written in India in their most nascent form. These 40 songs were immediately whittled down in the startling “Esher (EE-shur) Demos” whose best versions are included in this new package.
Several songs sound planned out (“Back In The U.S.S.R” is clearly a shared vision of their love of both The Beach Boys and Chuck Berry), while the most skeletal (“Yer Blues”) feesl foreign and in need of the multitrack ideas in waiting.
Culturally speaking, from 1965 until 1968 the world changed dramatically around the Beatles. While they gave up touring, they were keen observers of change and unrest. Originally criticized for not being political or polemic, their satirical commentaries have only grown more timeless in the absence of dated words, ideas or even production. “Helter Skelter” remains the boiling essence of rage. “Piggies” (while also permanently attached to the heinous Manson family crimes of one year later) is sinister and Dickensian in its climax. However, the real eye-opener between demo and album cut is “The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill.” What begins as a childish trifle showing an array of ideas in the Esher recording, becomes an expert commentary on war. Beneath “Bungalow Bill’s” tapestry of voices, lies a deep philosophical question asked in the least heavy-handed way.
Giles Martin does an excellent job of remixing what sounds increasingly difficult. Martin has a real gift for isolating instruments so they appear slightly higher in the mix, but never alarm you. The remixed “White Album” is every music junkie’s Advent calendar this year, as you continue to hear little touches that were lost in previous mixes both Mono and Stereo. Ringo’s drums crackle. Paul’s bass lines are newly present and warm. John’s voice carries that mixture of rawness and sincerity. (“Happiness Is a Warm Gun” as a demo contains a call to Yoko and “Child of Nature” is the first appearance of “Jealous Guy.”). George’s guitars sound so different from track-to-track. He patches in direct on the squelchy solo on “Savoy Truffle” and then lays down the easy arpeggios of “Dear Prudence” with surgical skill. Finally, Giles makes every arrangement from his father, shimmer and shine. While the elder Martin felt slighted in the years following its release, his strings and horns fit perfectly into every song.
After listening to the White Album yet again, this new mix and the newly discovered demos go a long way to illuminating that the four Beatles were growing in leaps and bounds as songwriters. While that definitely threatened the band at its margins (McCartney's "Martha My Dear" and Lennon's "Julia" are practically only performed by one Beatle), songwriting potential won out over studio tension (Starr walked off for 12 days, engineer Geoff Emerick quit mid-album and producer Martin was marginalized) and "The Beatles" remains the band at their most vibrant and the one Beatles album to truly get lost in.
CHARLES BRADLEY
BLACK VELVET
[LP/DLX LP/CD](Dunham/Daptone)
We lost a real soul singer in Charles Bradley. A late discovery, Bradley rose through the ranks of abandonment, homelessness, and playing tiny shows as a James Brown impersonator. Discovered by Daptone in 2002, Bradley finally put out his first album in 2011. "No Time For Dreaming" was followed by "Victim of Love" and "Changes" before we lost Bradley to stomach cancer last year. To remember him, Daptone has lovingly assembled several lost recordings and earlier tracks in this new package guaranteed to be felt in your soul.
Laura Jane Grave & The Devouring Mothers
|Bought To Rot
LP/CD](Bloodshot)
On her "Chicago Divorce" album, Grace bitterly leaves the windy city behind. Musically moving to a slightly cowpunk-esque brand of rock, Grace eviscerates everyone who ever stood in her path and still remains somewhat self-deprecating. Her thrashing is toned down from the punk days, but the sharp tongue is intact while tossing out stinging criticisms with crisp melodies ("Apocalypse Now (& Later)."
The Glands
Double Coda
[LP/CD]
Twenty years ago, the world of Alternative was still somewhat unkind to Pop. Oh sure, they made hits out of Marcy Playground and Harvey Danger, but an expertly drawn band from Athens, GA went largely unnoticed. "Double Thriller" pointed in the somber/sincere direction of later bands like The Shins. Too laid-back for commercial radio, their hits were often found in their misses. Glorious midtempo wonders (also reminiscent of another forgotten band - Beulah) and weirdly, puzzle like lyrics. "Double Coda" revisits the Glands circa 2000 through a heartbreaking cycle of studio cuts and demos that still sounds fresh today. These recordings would be the long, lost third album and following the death of singer Ross Shapiro in 2016 - the whole record is haunting.
