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 | The Beatles - Let It Be... Naked | |
 | "The real end, stripped down" | 2005-03-26 |
| For all the official accounts, and revising the tracklisting over and over again, one can only be led to two conclusions after listening to Let It Be... Naked: first, this is NOT Let It Be 'as nature intended', as the sticker in the CD cover tries to state; and second, this is NOT 'the original Get Back album', as some people wanted to believe. This isn't really anything that we could possibly expect: it is not a comprehensive account of the tremendous quantity of material that came out of the Twickenham/Apple 1969 Beatles sessions, it is not a proper soundtrack for the Let It Be movie (which has been out of print for years by the way), it is not the 1970 Let It Be album with the strings removed... it's really a mix of all that. And the reason is pretty clear: Paul McCartney hated the original Let It Be album, 'reproduced for disc by Phil Spector', didn't like anyone adding instruments to his songs and did anything that was possible to give to the world a statement of that.
So the discussion among Beatle fans was in order of 'was this *really* needed'? And the answer is quite easy: no. In all accounts, this sounds as an attempt to rewrite history (although an analysis of the release track by track could make one jump to slightly different conclusions) which was simplified by the fact that John Lennon and George Harrison are not around anymore to be strong oponents. We had gotten the point, really... on Anthology 3 we heard stripped-down versions of "The Long And Winding Road" and "Let It Be", the two Paul anthems from this album, plus some excerpts from the conflictive sessions that were so documented. The thing is that, in 1969, there were at least two mixes for what was going to be called the Get Back album, with tracks coming from all the sessions, without any orchestrations and marking the scenery that Paul McCartney wanted for The Beatles around that time (just the four of them, no additional instrumentalists, simple music to be played live). John Lennon and George Harrison vetoed its release, and called Phil Spector for the improvement, and whilst he worked with those tapes, the project was abandoned and the masterpiece Abbey Road was recorded in mid 1969. No tracks from this mixes can be heard on this Let It Be... Naked release. What do we get, instead. First, an album with a horrible title. Second, and essentially, we get the selection of tracks that Phil Spector made (go figure!), but without his orchestrations. And this calls for changes, that sometimes are slightly better, and sometimes are major surgeries. Since the dialogue from the original Let It Be album is totally removed (except for George's calls in the solo of "For You Blue", which, for the record and albeit cleaned up, sounds pretty similar to the Spector version), different versions of "Two Of Us" and "Dig A Pony" are offered (i.e. the dialogue is removed, but they are essentialy the same that appeared on the 1970 Spector LP), and even though the mix is clearer and brighter with today's technology, one sort of misses the warmth that those silly dialogs brought to the tracklisting in the original album. The running order is also modified; "Get Back" now opens the album, and again the version is quite similar to the familiar ones (in this case, the one from the single mix, since the "Rossetta" dialogue from the beginning is missing), but fades out quickly, leaving one cold and confused. And this is a problem that, sadly, follows in the most reworked tracks of the album, such as the otherwise fantastically remixed "One After 909". "I've Got A Feeling" is perhaps the most surprising addition; a completely different take with fresh sound and more prominent John/Paul interaction, better than the Anthology Vol.3 version, but still an alternate... just like "The Long And Winding Road", in a take that resembles a rehearsal (a Beatles rehearsal anyway) and captures the intimacy that Paul wanted for this song originally, even with some inaccuracies in the execution of the instruments, most clearly heard in the piano and the bass; or "Let It Be", the epic anthem that comes in without the familiar orchestra (which was also present in the George Martin-produced and Paul McCartney-approved single version of 1969), but instead with a prominent organ which gives a different sound, certainly LESS epic. The two creations here are "I Me Mine", in which the engineers couldn't just use 'single takes' because the song had overdubs and edits, and they had to leave them in order to have a comple entity (one has to remember that this song wasn't originally intended for the Get Back project); and "Across The Universe" which was recorded almost one year prior to the Get Back sessions and released in a charity album with 'wildlife' sound effects (that version can be found on Past Masters, Vol.II) and here finds glory in a brilliant mix that brings out the deep poetry of one of Lennon's best compositions. But even in the succesful remixes, one has to agree in the fact that they are certainly NOT what The Beatles were wanting to do when they recorded this album. Some of the tracks have been reconstructed, some alternate versions have been used, some deep changes have been made (like dropping "Maggie Mae" and "Dig It" in favour of a very inferior version of "Don't Let Me Down", an otherwise fantastic song) and the very attempt can be criticized. But it could be saved if the offering was better, or an improvement over Spector's mix (or even over Glyn Johns' mixes from 1969). It definitely isn't. It's just a proof of how great The Beatles can sound today with the technology effects available, a reminder of how badly their discography cries for a remastering/remixing/re-releasing process, a sampler of the thousands of songs that were rehearsad and roughly recorded in those 'dark' Twickenham sessions, and finally, a way to remember that the Let It Be period is one of the hardest in The Beatles' musical story and that is very hard to documment, even with today's powerful technological tools. In this context, the "Fly On The Wall" bonus CD is almost a joke: disjointed music and dialog snippets without point in just one track... bootleggers could agree that there are enough pieces of good music in those sessions to release a proper 2-CD collection documenting them. Let It Be... Naked exists because Paul McCartney wanted it to. I don't know if it's a commercial move by him, but it surely is an unneeded addition to a catalogue that needs other sort of changes. It still is a nice buy, because it contains Beatles music and that's always a great deal to one's ears. But try not to be fooled by this, nor to have big expectations. Just expect an alternate album from the one you're used to, with good sound but little cohesion. Or if you're a new fan, remember that most parts of this album were created in 2003, thirty-five years after the last sessions for the original album were finished, and, even if the sound quality leaves a lot to be desired, start with the 1970 album. | ||
 | George Harrison - Somewhere in England | |
| "Blood from a clone" | 2005-03-25 |
| After a series of relatively succesful albums, it seemed that Warner Bros. (the company that was releasing George Harrison's musical works), really wanted this comeback to be a hit. So the original lineup for Somewhere In England was very much altered before its releasing in 1981. That fact makes this CD a little more difficult to listen, and perhaps turns it into the weakest of the CDs that was re-released in the 2004 boxed set The Dark Horse Years 1976-1992. Still, when one tries to forget those discrepancies, and sees the released work as a group of songs instead of a proper 'album', the results are much more satisfactory.
The original edition of this album was going to include: "Hong Kong Blues", "Writing's On The Wall", "Flying Hour", "Lay His Head" and "Unconsciousness Rules" on Side A; plus "Sat Singing", "Life Itself", "Tears Of The World", "Baltimore Oriole" and "Save The World" on Side B, and included the original art cover with George's hair reminiscing the shape of the Great Britain (hence the wordplay in the title... 'Some Hair In England'). In the 1981 released version, however, the running order was changed, and four songs (namely "Flying Hour", "Lay His Head", "Sat Singing" and "Tears Of The World") were replaced (by "Blood From A Clone", "All Those Years Ago", "That Which I Have Lost" and "Teardrops"), and the album cover was changed for a more 'upbeat' picture of a 1981 George with moustaches and in front of a stone wall. What happened in between? Apparently the company wanted a different-sounding album, they didn't want the polished sound that George had to offer. So they made him change the tracklisting and remove some songs... The result must have been unconvincing for them: sure, he changed the mood of the original album by removing some tracks, but still he left as a opener, the dry, sarcastic and ironic mock at the recording industry "Blood From A Clone" (arguably one of the best rockers of his carrer), with agressive lyrics ("they want some oohm-papa / nothing like Frank Zappa / and not New Wave / they don't play that crap") about critics who don't know anything about music ("don't have time for the music / give 'em the blood from a clone"). This was, perhaps, his mind after the changing of the conditions. Because they (whoever they were in Warner) took away at least two of the best songs on the original album, the gorgeous spiritual ballad "Sat Singing" and the fantastic pop rocker "Lay His Head". He, however, managed to mantain the two Hoagy Carmichael covers that he did, the ellegant "Baltimore Oriole", in every angle a highlight of this album (despite the sax!); and the catchy "Hong Kong Blues". These two tracks symbolize the effect of too much synthesiser in every track, and defects in the production that make this effort sound a little dated. "Hong Kong Blues", in particular, is an effort in resurrecting some sounds from the early years of the 20th Century, something that George would revisit with much better results in other tracks like "Hottest Gong In Town" from the unreleased soundtrack of the Shangai Surprise movie. So you have to listen to this album as individual pieces of music to make it work more properly. In that case, even the weaker tracks like "That Which I Have Lost" or "Save The World", could work as separate entities, because both of them have clear messages, even though they get lost in the confusing track choices, and they are a little uneven comparing them to some much stronger tracks in previous albums like George Harrison or Thirty-Three & 1/3, or even in the much underrated Gone Troppo album. But the great songs are always there if you look at them... "Life Itself" is a beautiful love anthem with references to the divinity ("you are my friend and when life's through / you are the light in death itself") with precious works from the slide guitar (George's trademark); "Unconsciousness Rules" explores some of the tropical, laid-back themes that Gone Troppo would deal with, incorporating the 'in your face' lyrics that were typical of George in the adult era of his life, this time condemning the contradictions in people's existences; and whilst "Teardrops" suffers from excesses in the synthesisers feels, the imagery created is beautiful at times (especially in lines like "and it feels like I have taken over from the rain") and the song itself is rather pleasant. "Writing's On The Wall" tries to rediscover some of the themes that were explored in those obscurely produced and beautiful songs from the 70's like "The Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp" or "The Answer's At The End", recovering some writings from Sir Frankie Crisp, the former owner of Friar Park, George's house in Henley-On-Thames, and reconstructs a nice atmosphere, even though not as strong as in the previously mentioned. And then there's the best track on the album, the Lennon tribute "All Those Years Ago", which had originally been thought for a Ringo Starr album and had re-written lyrics after the terrible events of December, 1980. This track also incorporated Paul and Linda McCartney and Denny Laine (from Wings) on background vocals (which are almost inaudible in the mix) and Ringo himself on drums, making up for the first 'Beatles reunion' after John Lennon's death. In the song, George humbly confesses the deep admiration he felt for his bandmate ("living with good and bad / I always looked up for you"), reminds him as a social icon ("you had control of our smiles and our tears"), and a wise philosopher ("you found the way for the truth when you said / all you need is love") and tries to find an explanation to the horror in the confusion that the world lives in ("they forgot all about mankind"). It's all brilliant and moving, in the rhythm of a middle 80's-track, and one of the highlights of the solo Beatle production from those years. So when it comes up for a ballance, one doesn't know what to do. One gets a CD with excellent songs paired with weaker efforts, fragmented sounds without a visible unity and a singer that's not always comfortable with what he's producing (just see the lyrics for "Blood From A Clone"). In the re-releasing, one gets the original cover (but with the rearranged running order!), a remastered album that doesn't include any of the erased four songs from the original album ("Tears Of The World" went to the Thirty-Three & 1/3 remastered CD; whilst "Lay His Head" and "Sat Singing" and "Flying Hour" remain as 'rarities' in George's catalogue), and the bonus track is a demo of "Save The World", with different rhythm and lyrics from the original, which, at the same time, is an excellent showcase of George as a great acoustic guitarist, and a really unexpected addition to the tracklisting (because it comes right after the finished version of "Save The World"). Hard to listen to back to front, but the strength and 'heart' of the songs is really brilliant. So in the end, and in spite of all the obstacles find in the listening process and in the re-releasing, the album is a good experience, and very recommendable, if only for songs like "All Those Years Ago" and "Life Itself", which are worth the price of the CD for themselves. Get it. | ||
![George Harrison - Gone Troppo [Bonus Tracks]](product_images/1366000/1366230_thumb.jpg) | George Harrison - Gone Troppo [Bonus Tracks] | |
 | "Wake up my love" | 2005-03-13 |
| This is the least succesful album (in terms of sales and critics) of the 5 George Harrison albums that were re-released in the CD/DVD boxed set The Dark Horse Years in 2004. The reason is pretty clear, as there was almost no promotion whatsoever for this release, and thus only hardcore Beatles/Harrison fans did have the chance to buy and listen to this music. And some of the people who actually did find a time to listen and review it, found it a little over the top in production terms, and somehow lirically weak, too.
I can't honestly say that this is my favorite Harrison album, and I don't think it's amongst his best work either. I do believe, anyhow, that some of the criticisms that people have expressed over the years are somehow unjustified. While the production leaves a lot to be desired, especially because of the overuse of synthesisers, the songs remain, in a vast majority, being works of high quality, most of the times joined by excellent work in the vocal harmonies. The opening track (and single) from the album "Wake Up My Love" is a perfect showcase of that duality: the synthesisers conform the body of the musical work that puts a base to the tune, that exactly because of them seems so badly aged in these years; but when you listen to the passion of the vocals (almost never before heard in Harrison's previous work) and the fantastic lyrics that speak about the despair and disappointment in the search for the true meaning of one's life, you just can't ignore the fact that it's a great song. So I think it would have worked with a slightly different approach. But then again the great songs sort of compensate the excesses in the works of the synthesisers: "That's The Way It Goes" is a very interesting social comment that went underrated and forgotten for a long time until Joe Brown did a precious version of it in the Concert For George CD/DVD (2004); "Greece" is a beautiful semi-instrumental with very Monty-Pythonesque lyrics ("Yugo to Slavia / Half past Armenia...") that go almost unheard in the mix, but the strumming of the electric and slide guitars are just sublime and a proof that Harrison was an expert in these instrumentals (remember that "Marwa Blues" won a Grammy in 2004); "Circles" was, originally a psychedelic demo from the era of The Beatles (and can be found in various bootleg sources), and it's now become, with this new interpretation, a classic in its own right, a precious reflective track about people's personalities and the obvious cycles that this search represents in itself, discovering that not everything is what it seems ("he who knows does not speak / he who speaks does not know"); and "Unknown Delight" deals, in its surface, with the joyful arriving of a son, and the gorgeous light that brings to a mature man and his lovely wife; but it's also a great song about the chances of finding coherence and trascendental thoughts in the everyday phenomena ("God has given you the key / To the hearts of everyone / That comes in sight of you"). Another paragraph deserves what's possibly the best song on the album, the autobiographical "Mystical One" ("They say I'm not what I used to be" reminds one of "I hear how some people have said that I've changed", the first verse of the 1973 tune "The Light That Has Lighted The World"), which precious italian-like arrangements (mandolines) and possibly the one and only song in which the production does a job of improving an already good track (we can hear the demo as a bonus track in this new edition) and taking it to a superior level, because here the use of those amounts of production is perfectly justified by the happy tone of the composition. Same can be said, even though in a slightly inferior level, about the title track, which invents yet again in strange languages, nice imageries about being holiday and 'not really caring' about the world (the industry), which is perhaps what Harrison felt when he was giving away this album ("Plant me in de Helicona / No thank meeting de peoples"). So when one listens to this song and other festive tracks in this relaxed album one truly understands what's this about. Because in none other album a song like "I Really Love You" (which is not even SUNG by George Harrison, but by a chorus of four or five people in which he's in, and in which the most notorious voice is that of baritone Willie Greene) would sound just right in place. It's sort of a joyful throwaway and not much more than that; or the WAY overproduced "Dream Away", the playful song that belongs to the Time Bandits movie would be a highlight with these arrangements. Even the weakest track in here ("Baby Don't Run Away", to my understanding, one of the worst ballads that George ever wrote) finds some cohesion in terms of sounding and the projection of relaxed feelings - in the way of providing a small 'concept' for this album. Overall the listening of the CD, especially in its remastered form, is a fantastic treat to one's ears, be it because of the great songs ("Unknown Delight", "That's The Way It Goes", "Mystical One"); the fantastic lyrics hidden underneath ("Wake Up My Love", "Circles", "Greece", "Dream Away"), or even because of those funny throwaways ("Gone Troppo", "I Really Love You"). The experience of coming from 1979's George Harrison (a gem in which every song was carefully thought and featured precious arrangements in most cases), to this should have been a letdown back in the day... just like coming from this to 1987's Cloud Nine was THE huge comeback that George Harrison experienced. But this serves to demonstrate that, even in his supposedly 'worst' musical times, he was capable of writing quality material and recording it to build an enjoyable listening experience... even if he didn't want to promote it later. | ||
![George Harrison - Cloud Nine [Bonus Tracks]](product_images/1366000/1366207_thumb.jpg) | George Harrison - Cloud Nine [Bonus Tracks] | |
 | "This is love" | 2005-03-05 |
| After the sales failure that his 1982 album Gone Troppo was, George Harrison decided to retire 'to be a gardener'. When he came back five years later, he returned with a winner, and a big contender as the best album of his carrer: Cloud Nine (1987), co-produced by Jeff Lynne, features some of his best work, in lyrical terms, adorned by exquisite instrumental ornaments and great production skills.
This is an album in which George Harrison uses positively his Beatles/rock'n'roll background and takes advantage of the innovation on sounds and songwriting that he had been experiencing in the previous years. In lyrical terms, his words are honest as always, talking almost all the time in the first person, singing about that complete love that he defined as "both divine and human", and thus writing precious love songs that can also be thought of as prayers ("That's What It Takes", "This Is Love"), and vice-versa ("Fish On The Sand", "Just For Today"). In other tunes he uses the perfectly acid sense of humour to make criticisms about the modern society, or the lifestyles that he condemned ("Wreck Of The Hesperus", "Devil's Radio"). And in some other tracks he just wants to have fun ("Got My Mind Set On You") or to laugh at himself ("Wreck Of The Hesperus"). Sound-wise, this is a typically 80's album, with a big amount of synthesisers and synchronized drums (played live nonetheless, by Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner). The key is that the instruments are perfectly distributed into each track to make them sound tight and solid. Here, the synthesisers are used as an extra ingredient and not as the main part of the songs, and each track is carefully thought as a radio-friendly track. And it works perfectly: this album had at least three very succesful singles, and made George return to the top 10 albums list after a eight years. The sincere and simple work of the sincere and special man that George Harrison was is evident throughout the complete album. "Cloud Nine", the album opener, featuring a breath-taking guitar duel between Harrison and friend Eric Clapton, sets the mood with a bluesy pattern, as a very special invitation to the lover ("take my smile and my heart / they were yours from the start"). You can see here the maturity of George, a man who had already lived a lot, and now appreciated the estability and happiness that his family life had brought to him. In "That's What It Takes" (tune co-written with Jeff Lynne and Gary Wright) we have a perfect sample of what great pop music is supposed to sound like, joined in by a gorgeous lyric about the search for spirituality. "Fish On The Sand" and "Wreck Of The Hesperus" both feature interesting rock arrangements, but discuss very different themes: whilst the first one is one of the spiritual/material love duality ballads, the second one is one of the most ironic tunes George ever wrote, laughing at himself and the issues regarding growing old. "Just For Today" features a message to everyone ("don't try to deal with everything all at once", as George said in an interview), and it's one of those emotional tunes, perfectly crafted and produced to make you feel comfortable and moved at the same time. "This Is Love" (co-written with Lynne) is another perfect example of a great pop song, again speaking about the solemnity of earthly love when it's compared to heavenly love, and featuring a mesmerizing slide guitar solo that has to be the best that George ever did, in his calm stlye of course. Other highlights include the perfect Beatles parody "When We Was Fab" (another Lynne/Harrison collaboration which was a worldwide hit), which uses all the machinery needed to reproduce a Beatles song from the psychedelic years (including elements from songs like "I Am The Walrus", "Magical Mystery Tour" and "Within You Without You" and many meta-references which are just too fun to point out); the very serious (but also tongue-in-cheek) tone of protest against gossiping that "Devil's Radio" is ("gossip is devil's radio -- don't be a broadcaster); the moving ballad "Someplace Else", which was written specifically for the much maligned Shangai Surprise movie featuring Madonna and Sean Penn and has a nice arrangement; and the highly underrated "Breath Away From Heaven", to me, the best song on the album, an overwhelming oriental imagery with bright lyrics ("like an opallescent moon all alone in the sky of a foreign land") and precious musical arrangements. And to put just a happy ending to all of this you get the latest HUGE solo-Beatle hit, "Got My Mind Set On You", the last #1 single for George Harrison, a cover of an old Rudy Clark tune that had a fantastic vocal/instrumental arrangement, which made it such an unexpected success song all over the globe. Contributers include producer Jeff Lynne on bass, guitars, keyboards and background vocals; Ringo Starr and Jim Keltner on drums; Eric Clapton on guitar (notably on the title track and "Devil's Radio"); and Elton John and Gary Wright on piano among others. And although the album already had a great, clear sound, this 2004 remaster also helped to make it a little bit better, adding two bonus tracks from the Shangai Surprise movie (the title track, sung by George with Vicki Brown, mother of Sam Brown who sang "Horse To The Water" in the Concert For George tribute in 2003; and the nonsensical crazy instrumental Lynne/Harrison instrumental "Zig Zag" which was used as the B-side to "When We Was Fab"), albeit excluding other tracks from the very same soundtrack (like "Hottest Gong In Town" and alternate versions of "Breath Away From Heaven" and "Someplace Else") and from other contemporary sources ("Cheer Down", "Cockamamie Business" and "Poor Little Girl" from the already out-of-print compilation Best Of Dark Horse 1976-1989; "Lay His Head" from the B-side to "Got My Mind Set On You"). The inclusion of these songs in some other form would be fantastic to music fans and especially for collectors. But this album is already complete with the primitive soundtrack, which allows the work to be completely developed and delivered to the listener. It's actually a pleasure to one's ears to hear this music, with George in the maturity of his vocals and slide guitar talent skills, and a production of superlative quality. Undoubtedly the best album of the 80's, and of course, a must have. | ||
![George Harrison - George Harrison [Bonus Tracks]](product_images/1366000/1366197_thumb.jpg) | George Harrison - George Harrison [Bonus Tracks] | |
| "Love comes to everyone" | 2005-03-05 |
| The re-releasing of the 70's-80's albums of George Harrison's solo carrer does come as a tremendous gifts, not only to his hardcore loyal fans, but also to casual music listeners. This album is a great example of that.
Without receiving the tremendous airplay that All Things Must Pass had gotten in 1970-71 (and deservedly so!), nor getting the bad reviews that albums like Dark Horse or Extra Texture had gotten in the previous years, and having quite good sales, even climbing onto the Billboard Top 20 in the United States, George Harrison was an album that didn't have that many resonance in those days. Its soft-rock, laid-back approach was perhaps not as attractive to late 70's music fans as some other new movements in music. But the songs have aged so well, mostly because most of them are really good. "Love Comes To Everyone", the opener, is quite modest musically, featuring guitar work by Eric Clapton and some simplistic lyrics about the availability and universality of love, a theme which Harrison would explore further in upcoming releases, but it sets the tone to the album very properly. Its soft nature and relaxing mood fits perfectly the upcoming tracks: the Beatles' leftover "Not Guilty", which had been recorded by the band in a rocker approach, with no less than 100 takes before being dumped and not released in 1968's White Album, receives here an 'unplugged' treatment, with acoustic guitars and synthesisers replacing the distorted electric guitars and harpischord in the original. The change also affects the tone of the lyrics, which in this time do not sound that offended, but rather, more clever. In the same way, "Soft-Hearted Hana", with its psychedelic references about hallucinogen mushrooms and oniric trips comes in handy when taking the spot for the typical Harrison humour, with a very ironic arrangement which ends up in a Beatles-reminiscent manner, too. The top-20 single "Blow Away" might be one of Harrison's best contributions to the charts since "Give Me Love", with its uplifting and optimsitic lyrics, combining with adequate dosis of acoustic guitars, slide guitars (already a trademark of his albums) and synthesisers, with great results in a precious nature imagery. The other single, "Faster", does not reach the same results, perhaps suffering from a little bit of overproduction, being a great song nonetheless, talking about the racing sport and exploring candid metaphores about competitions in life. Nothing could really be considered "rock" here, it's more a pop album with some rock elements, like the Oberheim synthesiser placed in the uplifting "If You Believe", a great optimistic closer to the album ("everything you thought is possible / if you believe"). But overall, the mood is dominated by the softness of the more delicate compositions. Harrison's newly found spiritual life is joined by two precious acoustic ballads tributes to his wife ("Dark Sweet Lady") and son ("Soft Touch"), which sort of remind of the climate of Hawaii, the place where they were actually composed; and the omnipresent search is found on the beautiful sequel to The Beatles' "Here Comes The Sun", "Here Comes The Moon", which is a little more obscure than the predecessor, but still a nice song. Another paragraph must be taken to speak about the one that is probably George's greatest ballad (and one has to remember that it's Harrison the one who wrote things like "Something" or "Beautiful Girl"), and probably his most underrated tune ever, "Your Love Is Forever", which comprises moving arpegios of electric/acoustic guitars, with an overdubbing that makes them more emotional, and delicate touches of synth, bass, snare drums and piano, with a carefully arrangement of the lead and backing vocals and dreamy, glorious lyrics ("I feel it and my heart knows you're the One / The guiding light in all your love shines on / The only lover worth it all / Your love is forever"); which, as always, present the duality between spiritual and human love, which shouldn't be excluding necessarily. This edition includes a new cover (small change: the title of the album being replaced by a hand-written George signature), a remastered form which rescues the softest tracks (particularly "Dark Sweet Lady") from oblivion and low volumes of mix, and a demo version of "Here Comes The Moon" which is a nice bonus treat since George was a fantastic acoustic guitar player and here we get the pleasure to hear him strumming the chords to provide the basis of a gentle melody. Overall, I think George Harrison reached peace of mind while composing and recording this album, and this pleasure of living comes through the listeners' ears while hearing it, giving him comfort and a relaxing experience, adorned with beautiful lyrics and arrangements. A delicate and underrated gem. | ||
![George Harrison - Thirty Three & 1/3 [Bonus Tracks]](product_images/1366000/1366209_thumb.jpg) | George Harrison - Thirty Three & 1/3 [Bonus Tracks] | |
| "True love" | 2005-02-25 |
| Seeing this album being re-released was one of the greatest gifts that one could witness. Forced for years to hear low quality copies of the tunes from cassettes or other formats, the sound comes now clean with all of the CDs coming from the 'Dark Horse Years' boxed set. The changes are, however, most notorious, in Thirty-Three & 1/3, one of the greatest post-All Things Must Pass albums that George Harrison released.
Most of the complaints about this album in past ages have had to do with it being 'dated'. Sure, the presence of prominent wind sections and synthesisers couldn't belong to any other era rather than the late 70's, but this is no obstacle. With its new sound the recordings sound freshly added to the collage, and with the mixture of keyboards, pleasantly recorded guitars and excellent bass/drum tracks, the overall result is none other than tasteful. Because, besides the instrumental quality of this CD, there's a huge difference between it and other 'dated' albums from the 70's: this is filled with great songs. From the funky opener, "Woman Don't You Cry For Me" (in which George uses slide guitar for the first time in his carrer, something that would become a trademark for upcoming albums); through the immense beauty of the prayer "Dear One" (featuring a heartbreaking organ part played by Billy Preston); and to the lovely ending of a ballad that was the biggest winner with the remastering, recovering all of its sentiment and passion, and also one of the greatest acoustic guitar solos that George ever palyed ("Learning How To Love You"), we are exposed to an amount of fantastic tunes. "Beautiful Girl" comes from early acoustic demos, and here, with a more 'electric' arrangement, it still doesn't lose its innocence and beauty, becoming a haunting ballad and one of the most precious moments in Harrison's solo carrer. "See Yourself" and "It's What You Value" are two great examples of how to incorporate tastefully some philosophical and ethical aspects to pop music albums, adding a distinctive touch to the lyrics. Other high points include the ironic pastiche that "This Song" is. Referring to the whole "My Sweet Lord" / "He's So Fine" lawsuit, and also being supported by a funnier Monty Python-esque video, in which George just laughs at the matter, not having another choice, really. "Crackerbox Palace" is another humorous addition to the album, and also another popular single with a funny video; and finally, the cover chosen for this time ("True Love", written by Cole Porter) is one of the best songs on the album, beautiful in its simplicityt and with just the perfect arrangement with great slide guitars. My least favorite tune would be "Pure Smokey" (because of the arrangement), a tribute to Smokey Robinson 'while he was still alive', just for him to know how influential he had been in the songwriter's life. The message and the intentions, however, are gorgeous. All in all, more than having a 'point' to it, the album is filled with good songs, carefully crafted arrangements and production (very appropiate for their era, and that have aged well, too), and the continuation of a series of albums which incorporate Harrison's talent in writing passional, spiritual, helpful, tasteful, humorous and sometimes perfect lyrics. This 2004 reissue of the album adds a Somewhere In England (1981) extra track, "Tears Of The World", which sounds a bit out of place but it's still a nice addition as a bonus track. Underrated CD, with precious music in it. | ||
 | Beatles - Yellow Submarine (Songtrack) | |
| "Northern Songs with fresh sound!" | 2005-01-29 |
| There is something inherently 'wrong' in trying to remix songs by The Beatles. It's true, their music was recorded with technology that is not even by a slim chance comparable with today's standards, in an old time in which analogue machines and 4 and 8-track recorders were used, and, to get a richer sound, the bands had to be inventive but realistic at the same time; so people wonder what would the music of the best band of the world sound like given that they could have the best technology available and could incorporate more and more sounds to their already rich patterns, especially in the songs from their 'psychedelic' era (1965-67). And whilst that is a valuable question, many others make it clear that it was the intelligence in trying to make the original songs sound like fresh sound anthems with that poor technology what makes their sound so pure and unvaluable now... and because of this very same reason, re-work the Beatles's songs from their very beginning, and trying to do something different ('new') with them is an effort that would always cause a bit of tension between fans.
This is one of the consequences that Yellow Submarine Songtrack brought to Beatle fans around the world. But once they heard the improvements in most of the songs, they were obviously well-impressed. The album came out as the audio companion to the re-release in DVD and VHS of the cartoon movie Yellow Submarine (possibly the best of the 'Beatles' movies even though they actually weren't in them as their voices were dubbed by actors), and as a replacement to the old Yellow Submarine album, which included Beatles songs in one half (six, four of which were already released in other albums) and the George Martin orchestral score for the movie in the other, and was, mainly because of this reason, the only one of the Beatles albums that never got to #1 during their lifetime as a group, and in quality terms their worst effort. At the time they didn't even care about that movie, since they didn't think a cartoon film about them in their psychedelic epoque would actually work (the movie was released in the wake of the infamous White Album, which saw the band totally changing their sounds to a more direct and 'empty' pattern), so they didn't actually *record* songs especially meant for the movie... they used some others that they had recorded previously instead. While the original album gave us all the new songs featured in the film plus the title track and the hippie anthem "All You Need Is Love", people were still missing more than half of the (important) songs of the movie. This CD is an attempt of recovering all of the songs used in it, and an experiment in working with them, cleaning their sound, putting different instruments in the front mix, and, with the deserved respect, 'remix' The Beatles tunes. The results, almost all the time, are interesting, even if you're like me and you're not an expert in sound engineering. The version of "All You Need Is Love" *does* sound fresher, and cleaner, with the orchestra part totally reworked and rearranged in the mix; George Harrison's "It's All Too Much" recovers the magic that was lost in the horrible mix that appeared on the original album, and now we see it as the impeccable collage of mellotrons, distorted guitars, screaming sounds, tape loops, backwards talking and percussive thumbs that adorn a great love song that should have been the anthem for the summer of love... if it wasn't for "All You Need Is Love". "Only A Northern Song", also by Harrison, is another track that is recovered from oblivion, thanks to a cleaner mix and a fantastic work with the distorted orchestra and the vocal; Paul McCartney's "All Together Now", a childish wordplay just as "Yellow Submarine" was, sounds softer but more powerful at the same time with the characteristic horn a little bit hidden in the mix, and with more echo in the vocals. But the total winner of the recovered songs is the powerful rocking track "Hey Bulldog", a Lennon-written lirically-confusing theme, with amazing piano riffs filled in sound with impressive work of the rest of the instruments, making it all up for one of the best 'forgotten' Beatles tunes, a song that every fan should hear. A single was planned to be released in order to promote the CD in 1999, but the idea was vetoed, even though footage was found of the band actually recording this song (the footage was originally used in the promo video for "Lady Madonna"), and a video was made, which decent amounts of rotation through MTV and other music channels, which just proves that a great song can be greatly appreciated even thirty years after its recording. The mixing changes in the Revolver and Rubber Soul tracks was not as notorious in the other ones: "Yellow Submarine" does feature an additional Lennon-responding vocal ("a life of ease!") and a couple of more sound effects which were heard in the original mono version; "Eleanor Rigby" and "Love You To" sound stronger but the change is almost imperceptible, just like "Think For Yourself". John Lennon's "Nowhere Man" sees its echoes augmented, and the "treble-y" guitars brought up to the mix, making it up for a very welcome change. In Sgt.Pepper's tracks the use of the technology is mesmerizing, as the new mix for "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" emphazises the indian instruments used by the song, and give an inspired air of importance to John Lennon's lead vocal; just as the tougher sound applied to "With A Little Help From My Friends" helps one to hear in a better way the best vocal outing by Ringo Starr; and "Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" sounds fresh and terrific as always, but even stronger. My only complain would be "When I'm Sixty-Four", a song that I've never liked that much and that doesn't suffer from huge changes in the mix either. It does sound fresh, though, in the environment of the movie, which is so crazy and typical of its time. The sound treatment is almost impeccable in most of the cases; and the CD is the perfect company for the movie; even though one misses a remixing of "A Day In The Life" since a big part of the song (the wacky orchestra ending) does appear in the movie. The booklet leaves a lot to be desired, though, being only a huge poster of the movie's characters and scenery, but the whole deal is amazing. You get a glimpse of what The Beatles' catalogue would sound if remixed carefully. A great experience for a long-term Beatles fan, that should have this in their collection, and not only for completist's sake, but also for pleasure and for playing it out really loud. | ||
 | The Beatles - Past Masters, Vol. 2 | |
| "The missing link pt 2 ("Don't you know it's gonna last?")" | 2005-01-01 |
| Surely nowadays nobody discusses the productivity of The Beatles as creators of music. They were more prolific than any contemporary artist, and possibly than any artist *ever*. So at the time of their popularity peak they would not include singles on their albums (the UK Parlophone albums, because those are the real ones - don't listen to what Capitol says), even if they were huge hits, like other artists. That left a huge gap in their discography when it was released on CD; even releasing their 13 albums their official output was still not complete.
Fortunately someone thought about the fans at that time and gathered together a 2 CD-set collection of "the missing link" tracks, and, as the booklet sets, "if you have the 13 CDs, plus these two, you have everything that The Beatles [...] officialy released". So this CD, spanning through 1966 to 1970 (and its sister volume, covering the later years from 1962 to 1975) isn't really a 'conceptual' album, it's really a collection of non-LP songs, both non album huge hits and more 'obscure' tracks: "Day Tripper", a "song about drugs", as John Lennon says, is an exquisit exercise in rock'n'roll riffs and vocal harmonies, and a perfect contrast to Paul McCartney's "We Can Work It Out", its original flip side (both songs were promoted as 'A-sides' so that one was a 'double A-sided single'), which is a lovely ode to the chance of finding out a solution for love troubles, a truly great sampler of The Beatles 'unplugged' (acoustic guitar, bass, harmonium, drums, tambourine), and the perfect companion to the Rubber Soul album (1965). "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" experiment with harder sound on the guitars. The first track, McCartney-penned, features a great story "of a dirty man", and it's one of the finest rockers in their catalogue; whilst "Rain" (my personal favorite Beatles song), is one of those few songs that make you stand up and applaud. Everything works out perfectly here: the sound of the drums is perfectly in synchronizity with the bass guitar, the guitars are intrincated but raspy and 'rainy', the vocal is distorted and the lyrics are a fantastically disguised social comment by John Lennon. This could be considered as a powerful reason to buy this CD. "Lady Madonna" is another Paul McCartney track in which he delivers a third-part story, this time experimenting with jazzy sounds, with piano, saxophones and great harmony vocals. Its B-side, George Harrison's "The Inner Light" doesn't even seem to appear to be performed by the same band, though. It's a preciously arranged indian track (George's third and final totally indian contribution to the band, after "Love You To" and "Within You Without You") with wise lyrics and a heartbreakingly emotional melody that even Paul McCartney praised many times. Priceless, again. "Hey Jude" is often regarded as Paul McCartney's best song ever, and very deservingly so, with its empathic lyrics and compelled lead vocal work; backed with this version of "Revolution" (far better than the one appearing in the White Album), they sound dramatically different, but complement eachother perfectly. John Lennon's political anthem works out perfectly in this atmosphere, just like the two tracks lifted from the never-released Get Back album, "Get Back" and "Don't Let Me Down". The latter, John Lennon composition, is a superior heartfelt, moving and emotional ballad, with a sparkling lead vocal and great guitar work; whislt "Get Back" is a great attempt at rocking by Paul McCartney. The version here is different from the ones included in the Let It Be and Let It Be... Naked album, finishing with the extra spoken verse ("get back, Loretta, your mommy's waiting for you"), which was omitted from those albums even though they were originally meant to be in the song. The other non-album single from 1969 is also included, and it's another surprise because of its quality: "The Ballad Of John And Yoko" (a tricky and smart way of telling his own story to the world, written by John Lennon and recorded only by himself and Paul McCartney, who played drums on this tune) is backed up by the unfairly forgotten bluesy George Harrison tune "Old Brown Shoe", possibly his most underrated Beatle composition, a brilliant exercise in lyrics about opposites, twisted love relationships and music including a very thoughtful and carefully arranged guitar solo plus a terrific jumping bass guitar played by Harrison himself, as he declared in many interviews. To complete matters, there's the "Let It Be" single version, a little bit shorter (and notoriously inferior because of the different guitar solo) than the album one; its flip side, the funny "You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)", which really has no more lyrics than its title; and another different (and far inferior) version of "Across The Universe" than the one found in the Let It Be CD, this time without the orchestra, in a faster speed, and with two female fans singing backing vocals. These three songs, included for historical reasons, are here to make a great counterpart to the other smashing performances and unforgettable songs. Again, many people complain about the mono/stereo differences between these mixes and the original ones, found in the singles and albums, and it's true: the whole Beatle catalogue, this CD included, cries desperately for remastering or remixing. But in the meantime, this CD is one of the few cases in music where there's not a single bad track. An essential to any Beatles fan, to complete their collection, and a good addition to anyone's collection, just because for the enormous quality of the often forgotten B-sides. Get it. | ||
 | The Beatles - Past Masters, Vol. 1 | |
| "The missing link pt 1 ("Yes it is it's true!")" | 2005-01-01 |
| Surely nowadays nobody discusses the productivity of The Beatles as creators of music. They were more prolific than any contemporary artist, and possibly than any artist *ever*. So at the time of their popularity peak they would not include singles on their albums (the UK Parlophone albums, because those are the real ones - don't listen to what Capitol says), even if they were huge hits, like other artists. That left a huge gap in their discography when it was released on CD; even releasing their 13 albums their official output was still not complete.
Fortunately someone thought about the fans at that time and gathered together a 2 CD-set collection of "the missing link" tracks, and, as the booklet sets, "if you have the 13 CDs, plus these two, you have everything that The Beatles [...] officialy released". So this CD, spanning through 1962 to 1965 (and its sister volume, covering the later years from 1966 to 1970) isn't really a 'conceptual' album, it's really a collection of non-LP songs, both non album huge hits ("From Me To You", "She Loves You", "I Want To Hold Your Hand", "I Feel Fine") and the more 'obscure' tracks: "Love Me Do", included in its single-version, with Ringo drumming (!) and no tambourine, slightly different from the Please Please Me CD version; "Thank You Girl", the B side to "From Me To You", an innocent sweet pop song dedicated to the fans; "I'll Get You", the fantastic B side to "She Loves You", also including a contagious refrain ("oh yeah, oh yeah"), with intriguing lyrics about a love that should come in the future, just because the singer believes in it (The Beatles were beginning to experiment with songs surpassing the 'I love you, you love me' barrier), and also containing one of the biggest double-tracking mistakes by John Lennon in the middle eight (!); "This Boy", incredible B side to "I Want To Hold Your Hand", featuring terrific three-part harmonies, a stage favorite from those years; The german versions of "She Loves You" and "I Want To Hold Your Hand", even if only worth listening because of their historic value; "Long Tall Sally" (sung by Paul McCartney), "Slow Down" (sung by John Lennon) and "Matchbox" (sung by Ringo Starr), three rock'n'roll covers extracted from the one and only UK LP with exclusive material (Long Tall Sally), and in most cases surpassing the original version; "I Call Your Name", one of the most underrated Lennon compositions, intriguing and with a very interesting ryhthm change in the middle-eight, unusual for those times, from the same Long Tall Sally LP; "She's A Woman", a McCartney screamer including a piano track, B side to "I Feel Fine"; "Bad Boy", another underrated Lennon cover of Larry Williams, this time joined by terrific lead guitar 'responses' by George Harrison, and only released originally in the US; "Yes It Is", three-part harmony B-side to "Ticket To Ride"; and "I'm Down", possibly one of the best rocking tracks The Beatles ever made, including a compelling McCartney lead vocal, great work by Harrison on the guitar and a wacky organ solo by Lennon. Although the songs are remastered, most of them are in mono mixes and the audio quality screams for remastering/remixing, there are no flops in this one, no bad tracks. If you're a Beatles fan you should get this, in order to complete your collection. If you're only a casual listener, you'll enjoy the hits and will also be surprised by some 'hidden gems' in here, made by what's undebatably the best band ever. So "everyone wins in the end". Get it. | ||
![Paul McCartney, Wings - Venus and Mars [Bonus Tracks]](product_images/1386000/1386336_thumb.jpg) | Paul McCartney, Wings - Venus and Mars [Bonus Tracks] | |
| "He's alright tonight" | 2004-12-28 |
| Recorded in New Orleans, and released a couple of years after his well-received Band On The Run album, Venus And Mars finds Paul McCartney with a new band, with Jimmy McCulloch on lead guitar & vocals, Geoff Britton on drums (quickly replaced by Joe English, who 'got along better' with the rest of the guys in the band), the old pal Denny Laine on guitar, bass & vocals, and wife Linda McCartney on keyboards and vocals. He's also ready to go on with the exploration that he does in eclectic musical styles, and Venus And Mars is the proof of this.
The variation of styles is something that McCartney has liked to explore since his Beatle days, and in this album the variety is so rich, and -in most cases- so well performed that people were amazed. "Venus And Mars" acts both as a gentle opener and as a nice acoustic bridge in the reprise, helping to join some of the 'loose' pieces, as Paul does with some of his short songs in his better albums (remember "Can You Take Me Back" on the White Album), whilst the album really gets started with "Rock Show", a simply astonishing satire of the 70's rock scene, laughing at the lifestyles, abuses, excesses, sex, drugs... all with an irresistible musical structure that changes in every minute so the songs turns into a rock opera, with rich vocal harmonies and arrangements. "Call Me Back Again" uses the brasses as principal instruments, and finds McCartney at his bluesiest, using a dramatic vocal tone to enrich an already beautiful song; "Letting Go" really does come alive in the live version found in Wings Over America. Here it functions as another dig at the 'rockshow' ambient, albeit with a softer melody, punctuated and precise bass playing and brasses again. Other rockers include "Spirits Of Ancient Egypt", which, although written by McCartney, is sung by Denny Laine, and features dullish lyrics hidden into a strong basis of great vocal harmonies and guitar arrangements; and the surprisingly good Jimmy McCulloch contribution "Medicine Jar", a haunting 'serious' story about more drugs and excesses. Where is the variety, then? You find it all over the place, with the nice chord variations and vocal inventions that McCartney always performs in his albums, but also in a strong collection of songs that are not 'really' rockers, such as the lovely and gentle "You Gave Me The Answer" (a hall-dancing 20's piece which is, in many aspects, superior to the Beatles' "Honey Pie" for instance); the incredibly fun "Magneto And Titanium Man" (an electric piano-driven tune about a cartoon, with groovy harmony vocals); the elegantly arranged single "Listen To What The Man Said" (you've probably heard it in the radio, and it's certainly one of Paul's greatest songs in the 70's); the exquisit, lovely, precious and marvelous "Love In Song" (possibly the best song in the album, and certainly one of the most underrated McCartney ballads, featuring also a beautiful set of lyrics along with the great acoustic guitar/synthesiser/orchestra partnership) and the mellow pop medley "Treat Her Gently/Lonely Old People", which is, being quite good as a melody, the lowest point of the album, glued to the melancholic "Crossroads Theme" for closing the 'concept of loneliness' suite and the original album. The remastered CD also features as bonus tracks two instrumentals from the era that were issued in very different times: "Lunch Box/Odd Sox" (B side to the "Coming Up" single in 1980!) and "Zoo Gang" (B side to the "Band On The Run" single in 1973), which are nice if only fun band jams including Linda's distinctive Moog sound, plus "My Carnival" which was the B side to "Spies Like Us", a single from 1985... a nice example of what *were* those sessions about... fun in New Orleans, hearing it 'in the way the guitars played'. Complains are that the CD could have included some other songs, like "Junior's Farm" (only to be found in Wings Greatest and the US versions of All The Best!), "Sally G", "Walking In The Park With Eloise" & "Bridge On The River Suite" (to be found on the Wings At The Speed Of Sound CD!), Denny Laine's "Send Me The Heart" and Linda McCartney's "New Orleans" (released on their respective solo albums); or even unreleased pieces like "Proud Mum" or the finished version of "Hey Diddle". But those are only small complains, and since the original album is so good, you don't really miss these tunes. Paul McCartney must have been quite sure of himself in order to produce and record an album like this. He had already experienced with stylistic variations in some other albums like Red Rose Speedway, with mixed reviews as results. But this time he got it right: the strength of the album lies not in the lyrics (which are never the strongest point on *any* McCartney album to begin with), but in the melodies and arrangements, very well-crafted, carefully thought for each passage, and overall a nice experience that reveals secrets with each repeated listen. This is one of the strongest releases in McCartney's carrer, almost without flaws. And, what's more important, there are MANY good songs in here, so this should be an interesting experience for you to hear. Like Venus And Mars, he's alright tonight. | ||
 | Abba - Visitors | |
| "Let the music speak" | 2001-10-04 |
| Not by any chance the typical Abba album, "The Visitors" shows the world a totally different reality than the one that was experienced through their previous recordings. If "Ring Ring" or "Arrival" featured innocent and candid lyrics, and "Voulez-Vous" or "Super Trouper" were deeply involved with the disco-revolution that the world was living, "The Visitors", stands out as the best Abba album because of its strength. This is a pop record, made by people who know how to make pop sound like pop. Probably a big part of the strength of the album had to do with the lives of the members of the band during the recording. With guitarist/composer Bjorn Ulvaeus and singer Agnetha Faltskog already divorced since 1979, the band had to suffer the divorce of the second marriage, between keyboardist/composer Benny Andersson and singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The result of these hard situations are the most sincere lyrics ever written by this band. From beginning to end, the album is astonishing. "The Visitors" is the first (and the best in my humble opinion) track, and features an amazing Frida lead vocal, and altered all-band vocals for the bridge and chorus. The theme of the album goes through all these marriage complications, and it's mostly Frida the one who gets to sing the most intense lyrics this time. "When All Is Said And Done" (re-recorded in Spanish as "No Hay A Quien Culpar", this version is available on the "Oro: Grandes Éxitos" compilation) is a strong "goodbye" song, ironically with Benny playing an amazing piano part. We see Frida on her best vocal way also with "I Let The Music Speak", a track that explores the not always well apreciated theatrical vein of the band. The beautiful, haunting closing track (and a good farewell track for the band) is "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room", the one and only Abba track that does not feature a single vocal harmony, not even in the background. The song is sweet and tender, it sounds like Frida is sending her children to sleep. While Bjorn pays his personal tribute to The Beatles with the Pepper-ish "Two For The Price Of One", Agnetha gets the chance to sing on "Head Over Heels", a great poppy track; the haunting "One Of Us" (the only song from this album that made it to the "Gold" compilation"), in which she shows yet again her talents as a vocalist; "Soldiers", which is an ambient surrealistic track resemblent to the anthem "Eagle", released on 1978; and "Slipping Through My Fingers", the sweetest song of the bunch, talking about how hard is for parents to handle the growing of their children. This song was also re-recorded in Spanish as "Se Me Está Escapando" The B-side to the "One Of Us" single was "Should I Laugh Or Cry", another breaking-up song, strongly sung by Frida. The next Abba singles were "The Day Before You Came", probably the Abba song with the greatest lyrics ever and "Under Attack", ironically a much lighter love song. Those along with their respective B-sides "Cassandra" and the silly "You Owe Me One" can all be found in different issues of this album, and in different compilations. Those are for giving the costumer a complete view of the moment Abba was experiencing while recording "The Visitors". Their strongest record was surrounded by the sense of having grown up, the sensation of maturity and the need to do more innovative stuff in the fields of music. Benny and Bjorn took their chance and let the music speak for them. They were totally splitting up, but they let the world know about it. Surely they didn't think that was true, but it was anyway. It's sad that after a masterpiece like this a band like Abba broke up. It would have been great to know their achievements in the fields of the complex 80's music scene, but one must think that everything has a planned end, and there's nothing left to do when that happens. Don't expect this to be the regular Abba CD. It is much more innovative and "experimental", if you want... But it is an Abba record anyway. You recognize them not only because of the vocalists, but also because they're "letting the music speak" by them. And that's what they always did. | ||
 | Abba - Visitors | |
| "Let the music speak" | 2001-10-04 |
| Not by any chance the typical Abba album, "The Visitors" shows the world a totally different reality than the one that was experienced through their previous recordings. If "Ring Ring" or "Arrival" featured innocent and candid lyrics, and "Voulez-Vous" or "Super Trouper" were deeply involved with the disco-revolution that the world was living, "The Visitors", stands out as the best Abba album because of its strength. This is a pop record, made by people who know how to make pop sound like pop. Probably a big part of the strength of the album had to do with the lives of the members of the band during the recording. With guitarist/composer Bjorn Ulvaeus and singer Agnetha Faltskog already divorced since 1979, the band had to suffer the divorce of the second marriage, between keyboardist/composer Benny Andersson and singer Anni-Frid Lyngstad. The result of these hard situations are the most sincere lyrics ever written by this band. From beginning to end, the album is astonishing. "The Visitors" is the first (and the best in my humble opinion) track, and features an amazing Frida lead vocal, and altered all-band vocals for the bridge and chorus. The theme of the album goes through all these marriage complications, and it's mostly Frida the one who gets to sing the most intense lyrics this time. "When All Is Said And Done" (re-recorded in Spanish as "No Hay A Quien Culpar", this version is available on the "Oro: Grandes Éxitos" compilation) is a strong "goodbye" song, ironically with Benny playing an amazing piano part. We see Frida on her best vocal way also with "I Let The Music Speak", a track that explores the not always well apreciated theatrical vein of the band. The beautiful, haunting closing track (and a good farewell track for the band) is "Like An Angel Passing Through My Room", the one and only Abba track that does not feature a single vocal harmony, not even in the background. The song is sweet and tender, it sounds like Frida is sending her children to sleep. While Bjorn pays his personal tribute to The Beatles with the Pepper-ish "Two For The Price Of One", Agnetha gets the chance to sing on "Head Over Heels", a great poppy track; the haunting "One Of Us" (the only song from this album that made it to the "Gold" compilation"), in which she shows yet again her talents as a vocalist; "Soldiers", which is an ambient surrealistic track resemblent to the anthem "Eagle", released on 1978; and "Slipping Through My Fingers", the sweetest song of the bunch, talking about how hard is for parents to handle the growing of their children. This song was also re-recorded in Spanish as "Se Me Está Escapando" The B-side to the "One Of Us" single was "Should I Laugh Or Cry", another breaking-up song, strongly sung by Frida. The next Abba singles were "The Day Before You Came", probably the Abba song with the greatest lyrics ever and "Under Attack", ironically a much lighter love song. Those along with their respective B-sides "Cassandra" and the silly "You Owe Me One" can all be found in different issues of this album, and in different compilations. Those are for giving the costumer a complete view of the moment Abba was experiencing while recording "The Visitors". Their strongest record was surrounded by the sense of having grown up, the sensation of maturity and the need to do more innovative stuff in the fields of music. Benny and Bjorn took their chance and let the music speak for them. They were totally splitting up, but they let the world know about it. Surely they didn't think that was true, but it was anyway. It's sad that after a masterpiece like this a band like Abba broke up. It would have been great to know their achievements in the fields of the complex 80's music scene, but one must think that everything has a planned end, and there's nothing left to do when that happens. Don't expect this to be the regular Abba CD. It is much more innovative and "experimental", if you want... But it is an Abba record anyway. You recognize them not only because of the vocalists, but also because they're "letting the music speak" by them. And that's what they always did. | ||
![George Harrison, George Harrison - All Things Must Pass [BOXED EDITION]](product_images/1366000/1366234_thumb.jpg) | George Harrison, George Harrison - All Things Must Pass [BOXED EDITION] | |
| "Everyone has choice" | 2001-08-19 |
| When you're surrounded by the two greatest geniouses in the history of popular music, it's almost impossible to show the world you're also a genious. So George Harrison, while being in the best band in the world, had to suffer a kind of isolation in his songwriting. He even got his legendary nickname "dark horse" out of this unfair discrimination. But even getting two songs per album, he managed to offer a couple of jewels into our ears. By 1970, the always-growing egos of Lennon and McCartney finally broke up the band, thus leaving Harrison the opportunity to show himself and the world his real talents. Everyone has choice, and he took it. He recluted Phil Spector (who had built "Let It Be", that last Beatles album collected from the mountain of tapes that had been left after the "Get Back" sessions, and also co-produced the first three John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band singles and the album of the same title the same year) to work with him as a producer, and brought to the table only "a part" of the high mountain of songs he had collected during his years while with The Beatles. Some friends (Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman) and another guest stars (Gary Brooker, Badfinger, Ginger Baker, Billy Preston and Phil Collins) helped building the songs and bringing them onto shape. The resultant work is the triple vinyl "All Things Must Pass", which was a huge seller around the world, and converted George Harrison into the best-selling solo Beatle of the four after the break-up. And there were more than enough reasons for this enormous success. Spector's accurate way of producing built an adequate basis to an enormously qualified group of Harrisongs... The album passes through all of the guitarist's influences. Religious oriental music can be found on songs like the million-seller "My Sweet Lord", the polemic "Awaiting On You All", the touching "Beware Of Darkness", the painfully sung "Hear Me Lord", which can be heard as a chant made by George praying for his life to get a little better. Country music with great parts of slide guitar is found on "Behind That Locked Door"; blues appears with its jamming guitars on "I Dig Love"; George shines playing acoustic, mouth organ and electric on the gorgeous fan-directed "Apple Scruffs" (yes... "we're all Apple Scruffs"), as he does with the lovely ballads, such as the haunting opener "I'd Have You Anytime", the tender love anthem "If Not For You" (both co-written with Bob Dylan), and the highly well arranged orchestral rocker "Let It Down". You can also hear samplers of great sardonic lyrical moments by Hari, such as "Wah-Wah" (a rocker which is seen by many as a song written for his ex-bandmate John and his wife Yoko), "Run Of The Mill" (a wonderful but ironic ballad with amazing lyrics, supossedly directed to Paul McCartney) and "Isn't It A Pity", song that appears in two completely different versions, and is seen by many as George's own manifesto about what happened earlier that year. "What Is Life" shines as maybe the greatest symphonic rock ballad ever, while "The Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp (Let It Roll)", shows the humoristic side of George Harrison (SFC formerly was the owner of Friar Park, Harrison's magnificent house, and had a strange personality), "All Things Must Pass" was yet another Beatles left-over, and is a thrilling ballad which can make you chill, and "Art Of Dying" features the hardest-rocking solo Beatles song ever, with interesting and intriguing lyrics. That kind of group of songs was something that couldn't be seen since the Beatles' albums. But to make everyone happy, George decided to release yet another disc with this album, in which we could see the development of the sessions themselves, as they were an amazing joint of very well-prepared music... So the "Apple Jam" is what we can see on disc 3. The audio quality of the CD set first released in 1987 played against Spector's producing and Harrison's singing. So this urgently needed remixing, and it was done late 2000, with amazing results... If the sound improvements (vocals sound much clearer now, and we can appreciate almost every instrument used in each song) are not enough for you to buy the album, probably "I Live For You" (a never-released track from the original sessions, which is a haunting ballad with a little overdubbing done lately) will make it. As a curiosity, the album also features different versions of "Let It Down" and "Beware Of Darkness" (both with George on acoustic), a different mix of "What Is Life" (instrumental) and the latest showcase of Harrison's singing, the new version of the classic "My Sweet Lord", which can only be appreciated if you don't compare it to the original. Plus, the packaging, with the always-changing coloured cover (which shows the "evolution" of the world... it begins clean in front of the box and ends filled with buildings and highways in the booklet), the original cover featured as a picture inside the booklet, and liner notes by George himself, is another highlight. Furthermore, the best reason to re-buy this album if you already own it (or to buy it if you haven't heard it), is because this is by far the best solo album ever released by any of The Beatles. Neither the rock and roll poet John Lennon nor the pop master Paul McCartney could ever reunite a set of such powerful songs as this one. This shows that George was more than a "dark horse"... He was a genious in the shadows, taking his choice to illuminate all our lives with splendid music. He did it through this record, which is surrounded by an emotional and deep set of lyrics and well-arranged music. Take your choice with it. | ||
 | Paul McCartney - Run Devil Run | |
| "The angel's having fun" | 2001-08-10 |
| When Sir James Paul McCartney attended to the "Larry King Live" show on CNN previously this year (2001), he was asked how did he deal with Linda's passing, and, most of all, with pain. He simply didn't answer the question, and started playing with a strange type of watch he had been given. Macca simply does *not* deal with loss of important people. And in 1998 he lost the most important person in his life, his most important inspiration, his wife Linda. So apparently the man just got depressed a little bit (just like he had done when The Beatles broke up), and then submerged himself into work. More over, he tried not to show the pain in the work he gave us during this time. The "Run Devil Run" album, result of a couple of recording of sessions that took place in 1999, with the co-producing work of Chris Thomas and a great backing band with Pink Floyd's David Gilmour on guitar, Deep Purple's Ian Paice on drums, plus Dave Mattacks, Mick Green and some other great musicians, and Paul himself taking his legendary Hoffner bass and playing it like in the old days. He simply decided to have a ball. "The angel's having fun", he sings in one of the three original composition that appear on this album, which is mainly a return-to-roots work. The album sounds heavier and more solid than most of his 80's and 90's work, with powerful work in the guitar sessions, excellent company of piano and keyboards, and some strong, hard-rock drumming that wasn't being heard from a long time ago in Macca albums. This return to his youth, in some way inspired by the loss of Linda, and in other way, because he desperately needed to, found him, unexpectedly to say the less, in an amazing vocal style... His version of "All Shook Up" is easily the best of this Elvis classic ever, and his screaming trademark constructed in The Beatles' era can be found on several "happy" songs like the closer "Party" (another Elvis tune), the bluesy Little Richard song "Shake A Hand", the amazingly strong rocker "Honey Hush", his own composition "Run Devil Run" (written in a very Berry-ish style, as in telling a story), "I Got Stung" and "She Said Yeah" (bom-diddle-diddle-dum). Some of these songs contain the best McCartney vocal performances ever. "What It Is" is another bluesy track, written to join the 'happy' mood of the album, and it has the reputation of being the last song that Paul wrote for Linda while she was alive. This album has practically no low points. The soft vocals by Paul on "Blue Jean Bop", and its acoustic structure make it a great opener. "No Other Baby" is the greatest track on the CD, not only because of its obscurity and rareness, but also because of a GREAT instrumental and vocal performance. It should have been a hit. "Lonesome Town" follows somehow the sadness that Paul was trying to hide from the world... Another blues-driven track that's amazingly played by the musicians and totally well sung by Paul. "Try Not To Cry" is the closest thing to a sincere window to Paul's soul... but still his feelings are slightly hidden. The lyrics are quite obscure, and the ryhthm is kind of "happy", with probably the strongest and most prominent drum part heard on the CD. Another high. And then "Movie Magg" and "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" are the humoristic songs, two uplifting tracks by two of the greatest songwriters of rock'n'roll: Chuck Berry and Carl Perkins. The arrangements are amazing, you get to hear an accordion on "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man" and Paul playing a great acoustic guitar on "Movie Magg". So... Mainly a ball. Paul playing with a bunch of friends, and feeling happy for awhile. Maybe for escaping from the pain and the suffering, maybe for making his fans happy. Whatever the reason was, this "comeback" was very well-received by us the Macca fans. Here he leaves that reputation of a writer of "silly love songs", and accomplishes a status of a major rock'n'roll follower and performer, who's capable to make an excellent rock effort, in the times where pop and bubblegum music are sadly commanding our world. When "angels" like this one go out and "have fun", the results are always welcomed efforts. No Beatles fan should be without this CD, and any rock fan would appreciate it as a great piece of work. Maybe the best that Macca has done in the latter years. | ||
 | George Harrison - Wonderwall Music | |
| "Portrait of a psychedelic time" | 2001-07-23 |
| While it can be discussed whether "Wonderwall Music by George Harrison" was truly the first solo album by a Beatle (existing some old soundtrack to a movie called "The Family Way", whose music was composed by Paul McCartney), there's no doubts, that in the middle of that weird family conformed by their experimental albums (the "Unfinished Music" series by the Lennons; "Electronic Sounds", by George himself; and most recently, the "Fireman" CDs by Paul), this CD stands out as a high point. Almost entirely an instrumental, this music was composed by the fantastic guitarist of The Beatles going along with the development of the movie itself... in fact, this LP, digitally remastered and converted into a CD by Emi in 1992, doesn't cover all of the score made for the soundtrack, and it's only a part of it. The argument of the movie, then, explains lots of the instrumental music that we hear on the CD... A sad, average man only finds happiness in the beauty and magic of a fantastic lady that comes to his bedroom through a "wonderwall". This shows mainly how this soundtrack is. The other basis used by George to create this piece of music was his unique background of western (traditional pop, rock'n'roll) and eastern (mostly indian) music. Then, alternating the tracks, you get to hear little suites from both generes. "Microbes", "In The Park", "Guru Vandana", "Crying" and "Fantasy Sequins" follow the shape of instrumentals conformed by wind indian instruments. "Tabla & Pakavaj", "In The Park", "Gat Kurwani" (a particularly outstanding and breathtaking track) and "Glass Box" follow more the tendency of featuring chord indian instruments, always based on unusual harmonical structures... "Love Scene" is the longest track, and it's conformed by several parts of amazing indian music, and one even gets to hear some vocalists musitating words. And "Singing Om" is exactly that, and a good finale for the record. However, the extremely amazing parts are the pop based tunes. "Red Lady Too" is a waltz piece made in a piano that sounds just like the one on "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da"...; "Drilling A Home" has the same sound (which shows how many times The Beatles used this George Harrison influences on the group's records) ; "Ski-Ing" is one of the most amazing instrumentals ever, featuring Eric Clapton playing a strong riff on his electric guitar; "Party Seacombe" follows the 12-bar pattern that some Beatle instrumentals had had; "Cowbow Music" is exactly that... and then "On The Bed" and "Wonderwall To Be Here" are great finales. Breahtaking to say the least. Well... it may not be the kind of George Harrison album you could be looking for, but it's much better than lots of "experimantal" music that The Beatles released towards the end of the 60's decade. This one is in a relaxing mood, with moments of light and moments of darkness. Almost like a classic piece. This is a classic piece, but it's one coming from another time. A well made portrait of a psychedelic time. | ||
 | Beatles - Let It Be | |
| "The real end" | 2001-03-17 |
| This was not the last Beatles album to be recorded, but the last one to be released. The recording sessions, accompanied by the recording of a movie, had a lot of moments full of tensions and internal disputes, conducted principally for the crecent dinstinction between the interests of the four members of the band and the presence of Yoko Ono in the studio. So the original intention of making an album that could mean the return to the Beatles' basic roots, or a "new phase Beatles album" (that supposedly meant returning to play straight rock'n'roll and record together as a band) resulted into a complete flop. Kilometres of recorded tapes were left behind, the movie (recorded at Twickenham studios) was also left, and everybody thought it was the end. But it wasn't really. "Abbey Road" was quickly recorded and released after these hard sessions, and two singles ("Get Back" and "The Ballad Of John And Yoko") kept The Beatles in the first places of the charts. When everybody was obviously tired of being a Beatle (even Paul McCartney) and rejected the hard work of editing and mixing the big quantity of songs that had been recorded in the "Let It Be" sessions, Phil Spector was called to the scene. He tried to edit the tapes and to create a whole album from all those fragmented songs. And the results, even though are not between the Beatles' best recordings, are impressive at times. His production of "The Long And Winding Road", a lovely McCartney ballad which was the last #1 Beatle single in the US was criticized by Paul himself, but his 'wall of sounds' indeed makes the sound more solemn and gospell-ish than the original, simpler version. "I Me Mine" is a notable Harrison composition with ironic lyrics, arranged again by the complete Spector orchestra. He also did his work with "Across The Universe", a very poetic Lennon song from 1968, making it a slower and again adding the big orchestra arrangement. This time you can't reject the results, as they were amazing, making this one of the more mystical Beatles record ever released. So the "new phase" spirit is rarely felt in this collection of edited pieces, but is helped by John Lennon's gibberish, heard amongst all the album, and by Billy Preston's work in the additional keyboards. "Two Of Us", though, has the warmth of a live recording and is a beautiful ode to the friendship Paul and John had during the Beatle years; "Dig A Pony" is a wonderful bluesy record, also played live; "I've Got A Feeling" is one of the last Lennon/McCartney collaboration, joining together two songs into one fast, hard rocking number, the best song in the album. "One After 909", which is a restored song composed even before the first recording sessions the Beatles made, is somewhat a nostalgic view to the early years of the band; while "For You Blue" shows the bluesy side of George Harrison, who plays a great acoustic guitar and lends John the slide. "Get Back", already a hit from the 1969 single, appears here in a slightly shorter version and closing the LP. The title track, surrounded by two strange links ("Dig It" and "Maggie Mae") is an astonishing example of the Beatles working as a band. McCartney's at the piano, singing and doing a sincere pray to his protector in the sky; Harrison and Lennon play guitars and Ringo is also there, with his amazing drums, completing the religious and solemn atmosphere. Indeed one of the greatest songs of all-time. Don't buy "Let It Be" until you're introduced well to The Beatles. The album was released after the band's departure, so it's more like a "posthumous" album than a straight-pop collection of hits. Buy it when you know most of their work, and then you'll be able to hear and understand why this album sounds so sweet and harmonius, even when it's made up by unconnected songs joined somewhat in an artificial way. The songs are so good (as always) that they represent treasures in pop music, even with all the painful events that surrounded the recording and releasing of The Beatles' swan song. | ||
 | The Beatles - The Beatles (The White Album) | |
| "A house of dolls" | 2001-03-11 |
| "A House Of Dolls" was the original title to this piece of art. Indeed it is something like that. You can't find a concept in this bunch of varied and unique songs. During and after their trip to India, The Beatles had the time to explore new sounds and to find the authenticity that was lost in more sophysticated records like "Sgt.Pepper's" or "Magical Mystery Tour". This variety of sources and sounds is what you can find inside the album. Their exploration in the wide spectrum of the musicianship led them into unexpected fields. This album is a mixture of that variated and daring search, where sweet and acoustic straight pop tracks are mixed alone and together with electronic suites and symphonic arrangements, with unexpected and perfect percussion works and even a never-before-seen in the pop scene "wall of sounds", which John Lennon called "Revolution 9". So this album has to be checked song-by-song, because, although it has come continuity and sense of "concept" (it begins saying "I'm back in the USSR..." and ends saying "now it's time to say goodnight"), the variety spectrum is really wide. The three main composers of The Beatles worked separately, and even some songs were recorded only with two of three of them present. So the title can even be considered as an irony... Paul and John share equal number of songs on the album. McCartney's seen in all his faces. Rocking at his best with humour and irony ("Back In The USSR", where he also plays drums and lead guitar), shouting his throat out ("Why Don't We Do It In The Road") and making the strongest noise ever heard as music ("Helter Skelter"). His acoustic ballads are overwhelming for their sweetness. Linda appears as a distant figure inspiring him on "I Will", he wishes to live a simple life ("Mother Nature's Son") and writes the greatest acoustic pop tune ever ("Blackbird"). Always criticized because of his weak lyrics, he laughs at himself making up non-sense third-part stories so well arranged that you can't complain: "Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da" and "Honey Pie" (together with "Wild Honey Pie") have excellent production; "Rocky Raccoon" is perfectly arranged to its country content, and "Martha My Dear" shows classical work. He and John share the credits for writing the rocking and screaming "Birthday", which sounds like The Beatles having fun in the studio rather than a finished song. Astonishing. John Lennon is the master of lyrics. "Dear Prudence" must be one of the highest points in his work, with delightful images and sweet poetry. "Glass Onion" and "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" are both ironic tracks about strange themes, but always rocking. But if we have to talk about irony, "Sexy Sadie" is a hidden message to the Maharishi, and to all the people who believe they have the "cosmical solution" to life's problems. "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill" follows Paul's style of writing (third-part stories), but again the strange images into it made it a wonderful track. "I'm So Tired" is one of the best songs of all-time for its simplicity. The acoustic side of John is also shown here, with "Julia" (what a great poem transformed into a ballad!) and the bluesy version of "Revolution". His rocking part is exhibited in "Everybody's Got Something To Hide...", and the obvious Yoko participation on "Revolution 9" lets us with no words. The sweetest side of John, sending his son to sleep, is heard on "Good Night", a song that Ringo sings perfectly. George, as always, is left to only two songs on each disc. He manages to shine, though. "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is the masterpiece of the album, with the important participation of Eric Clapton on the screaming lead guitar solo; "Savoy Truffle" is a rocking track with funny lyrics; "Piggies" is one of the most original social comments ever made, transformed almost into a medioeval track; and "Long, Long, Long" is a wonderful acoustic pray from a man who has found God after losing him. Even Ringo writes a song, being "Don't Pass Me By", a country number notable for its rhythm cadences, his first released composition. Variety within unity, and quality. That's what you find inside this album. If you consider that "Hey Jude" and "Revolution", together with "Not Guilty", "Junk", "Something", "What's The New Mary Jane" and "Child Of Nature", were composed or recorded around the same time, you can say 1968 was a very creative year for The Beatles. This album is only a sampler of that creativity. | ||
 | The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night (1964 Film) | |
| "Happy just to dance" | 2001-03-10 |
| This album is by far the best from the first era of the Beatles. Formed by thirteen Lennon/McCartney compositions, it's full with joyful songs that can remove you with their musical perfection and accomplishment. But again, just like in the two first Beatle albums, you can be amazed by finding a great variety of musical styles, and the sparkling brilliancy of two composers and four musicians that were simply "meant to play with each other". The highest point of the Beatles' creativity on their first era is inside this LP, and it was suprisingly coincident with the highest point of their popularity in the whole world. "A Hard Day's Night" was not only the title of a song and this album, but also of a major success movie, a very creative Richard Lester comedy based in the true lives of the members of the band. So the success and the quality of the movie, where The Beatles began to show their critical side against certain society rules and their particular sense of humour, showed the world that they were not only meant to be a simple rock'n'roll band like some others might have thought. They were about to change the world with their part of the work: the music. This movie, and its respective LP (released on CD in its British version, not the American soundtrack which only contained seven Beatle numbers) was the definitive prove of that fact, setting fire to an already burning massive success that change every single part of people's lives. Musically, the album is a repertory of pop perfection. John Lennon dominates it as the major composer and lead singer, driving it mainly into fast numbers, always energetic, making you think that the only way The Beatles were happy was to dance. The opening track "A Hard Day's Night" begins by struggling you with its impressive opening electric guitar chord, and later summes you into the deepest musical trance full of speed, with its up-tempo structure and piano solo. Life is fast, so the truth can be said in a few minutes; "I Should Have Known Better" is an acoustic masterpiece, with a John playing harmonica and singing pretty well. His other compositions are also worth noting: "If I Fell" is an emotional ballad with great harmonies by Paul; "Tell Me Why" is another cheerful filler; and the second side is a great collection of John's early songwriting: "Anytime At All", the perfect B-side to "A Hard Day's Night"; "I'll Cry Instead" (my own favourite), a short but amazing love lament about a love that's lost, but with an important quote of resignation and irony; "When I Get Home", interesting because of the harmonies and the guitar work; "You Can't Do That", showing the lead guitarist John singing another love story and playing an amazing solo, and "I'll Be Back", a tender acoustic ballad sung in two and three-part harmonies. Paul also shines: "And I Love Her" is an all-time acoustic classic, a ballad that has aged very well; "Can't Buy Me Love" was already a big hit before the album came out, counting with a terrific lead vocal by Paul and a great George guitar solo; and "Things We Said Today" is lirically the best song on the LP, an interesting point of view of the ending of a relationship, looking at it behind, as it now was the future. John said it was a good song. George doesn't write any songs here, but his voice can be heard on "I'm Happy Just To Dance With You", the song that resumes the spirit of the LP. He shines as a lead guitarist on "Can't Buy Me Love" and "A Hard Day's Night", and his backing vocals are always welcomed. Ringo drummed perfectly joining the almost-always cheering songs, and his work with the bongos on "And I Love Her" was great. Here you will find the happy face of The Beatles. There were happy to be dancing and to be the biggest band in the world. Here you can hear them enjoying it, and be removed by that sparkling energy. If you like that teen spirit and charming sense of humour that The Beatles had on their first era, buy and hear this.You won't regret it. | ||
 | The Beatles - Please Please Me | |
| "What a bundle of joy!" | 2001-03-07 |
| Almost everytime that a band releases their first record, the enthusiasm and the excitement can be felt around it the first times you hear it. With "Please Please Me", though, that youthful spirit of non-expert, energetic and absolutely talented musicians has survived through the years, transforming the first album ever recorded by The Beatles (in 585 minutes) into a piece of joyful and cheering music that can be heard by any generation, extracting the same warmth and sense of quality that the people in the 60's saw in the talents of this band. The power and the sparkling energy displayed through the songs of these innovative boys was quickly appreciated not only by the huge bunch of screaming fans, but also by the critics, who saw in themusic of The Beatles, beyond the social change that it could create, an important creative contribution, since they were transporting rock'n'roll, originally a part of the young culture, to the spirit of a whole country, and later, of the world. The LP itself is quick and breath-taking since its starting, and can be easily enjoyed now by fans of any generation. Eight original McCartney/Lennon songs (the only CD which displays this credits and not the familiar "Lennon/McCartney" ones) form it, starting with "I Saw Her Standing There", one of Paul's most notable rock'n'roll pieces, with a stunning bass part, and energetic lyric and a fun, timeless recording. "Misery" shows the sentimental side of John Lennon, who's perceived as the most-talented lyricist in the group, writing a melancholic song supported by the invariable instrumental basis and George Martin's piano; and also shining on "There's A Place", maybe the first time he tried not to write a simple love song, but an introspective one, changing the traditional way of writing that rock'n'roll composers had at the time. It also contains the background of harmonies that would eventually become the trademark of the early Beatle recordings. "Do You Want To Know A Secret", beautifully sung by George Harrison, is another Lennon number, this time an innocent and sweet love ballad about a boy who falls in love with a girl. This is a particular favourite of mine, and I think the strength of thissong lies in the luminous melody and the geniously arranged background harmonies. The rest of the originals were already known by singles: the different version of "Love Me Do" and its B side "PS I Love You" (a McCartney number with great vocals); "Please Please Me" (the current hit with original and out-of-the-common lyrics) and its B side "Ask Me Why" (an unfairly forgotten Lennon/McCartney song). The covers are so well-chosen that you can't reject them. John's rendition of "Anna" is better than Arthur Alexander's, as you can feel by the first his painful throat shouting for a girl he loves. "Chains" is a three-part harmony number written by Carole King and husband, and directed by George Harrison, who sings the lead part (although he's not credited!). Another chance for John to show his harmonica-playing, and another great song. "Boys" is Ringo's turn to sing, a song that really fits into his personality, and that shows The Beatles really seemed to be enjoying what they recorded. "Baby It's You" is another love ballad driven by John's dramatic vocal. "A Taste Of Honey" seems to be the weak point in the album, although is a good way to appreciate Paul early as a standard pop ballads singer. "Twist And Shout" is known by all because of its simplicity and John's destructed but amazing lead vocal George and Paul's tired but luminous background harmonies that made The Beatles' version to this american original a stand-out and brilliant live number. There were many eras in The Beatles' early years. This record recovers their first-time attempts, with the inexperiences and mistakes, but also with their indisputable talent. I'm 18, and I think this CD can go through all the ages, and make a good impression. That's why the music of The Beatles is so important. The recording of this album was, indeed, "a bundle of joy" for them. They really enjoyed it, it was their big change, and they made it with all their energy and sense of humor. Buy it, and it will surely represent "a bundle of joy" for you too. | ||
 | The Beatles - With the Beatles | |
| "A second time!" | 2001-03-04 |
| The first Beatle album "Please Please Me" was still at the top of the English charts when this second one came out. And it wasn't a big surprise, I think, that "With The Beatles" replaced it quickly, moving it to #2. The Beatles phenomenon was already a big thing on England, and the collective histeria that this four guys were generating make the fans and critics create big expectatives with the next album...They were always waiting. And The Beatles were there to surprise them. In retrospective, and looking only at the first era of The Beatles' story, this album sounds better to me than "Please Please Me". It may not contain some of the autenthicity and lovely "first time-tryers" taste that the first album brought, but you can hear lots of improvements, made in less than half a year. On this LP, John Lennon is still the leader of the band. His compositions are "simple love songs", reminding happy days or looking for a hit, but joyful and energetic sounds. Lennon dominates the album, as he's the lead vocalist on most tracks. "It Won't Be Long", the opener, is an up-tempo, catchy and luminous number conceived by him with help from Paul. The background vocals are awesome. He's always singing about love: "All I've Got To Do" and "Not A Second Time" have melancholic lyrics (particularly the second one, talking about a dissapointed boy who doesn't want to give his love again to the same girl), but the most notable thing about them are the musical arrangements: the drum changes on the first one, and the chord progression on the second, show you how The Beatles were always trying new things to surprise everyone. "Little Child" is a Lennon/McCartney collaboration, with a bluesy taste, given by the piano and harmonica in the background, and the prominent vocals. "I Wanna Be Your Man" (Ringo's vocal outing) is another composition written between the two leaders of the band, notable for its lyrical simplicity, and for fitting perfectly on Ringo's personality, double-tracked lead vocal and even drumming. Paul McCartney contributes with two songs: the brilliant hit "All My Loving" (a letter-type song, with an awesome rhythm guitar by John, a country-ish lead guitar solo by George and Paul dueting with himself in the last verse!) and the low point of this album "Hold Me Tight", about which Paul himself has said it was merely a filler, and not a very good one. George also appears here as a composer here, with the spectacular "Don't Bother Me", his recorded debut. The chords used to fit into the long verses made this song a challenge to record. The environmental percussion used here is amazing. A lot of production was being done. And the covers are good choices. Chuck Berry's "Roll Over Beethoven" sung by a double-tracked George Harrison is an all-time favourite, and one of the best covers ever released by The Beatles. Even the hand-clapping helps this song to sound better than the original. Paul's omnipresent sweet side comes out with his fine vocal performance of the nearly-acoustic number "Till There Was You". "Please Mister Postman" and "You Really Got A Hold On Me" are both fans' favourites, sung by John. "Devil In Her Heart" is a surprise: George sounds innocent and sweet singing lead, on an old american favorite, and the rhythm structure is unusual by a Beatle number. The album again closes out with John giving his throat out, this time with the Motown classic "Money (That's What I Want)". His vocal performance is impeccable, and the piano makes it even more notable. People were expecting everything from The Beatles: all the time they were "With The Beatles" in their heads. The first album had put a very high level of exigence to the second one, but the race was won. The Beatles were there. Yes, for a second time. For those who didn't believe a group like this could last, it's been more than 38 years from the first releasing of this album, and it still sounds fresh and sparkling, as it was *again* only the second time we heard them. The Beatles surprised everyone with this songs. Let them surprise you too: buy the album now. | ||
 | John Lennon, Yoko Ono - Double Fantasy | |
| "A heart play" | 2001-03-03 |
| The re-releasing of this album brings back an interesting point of discussion: how much was Yoko Ono involved in the musical work of John Lennon. The fact that John Lennon decided to share his "come-back" album (after five years of self-imposed seclusion to spend time with his son) with his wife, a different kind of artist herself, said enough about this point. So it's hard to review an album like this. I think the right choice is to hear the album as an entity, and to try to appreciate what John and Yoko were trying to tell at the beginning of a new decade which brought a lot of expectatives and plans into their lives along with the happiness that the coming of Sean brought them. From this point of view, one can say that John was happy. You can see it in some songs where he talks in a very relaxed mood about his life, his relationship with his son, his wife, and with the whole world. John's songs are gifted by an enormous quality, and, although he may have lost some of the pain, anger and raw feelings that made him record the masterpiece album "Plastic Ono Band" in 1970, his way of living now was also inspiring. Looking it at that way, John still rocks with tracks like "I'm Losing You" (highly improved, though, in the "Anthology" version) and the underrated masterpiece "Cleanup Time". He travels through the varied fields of pop (like in "Starting Over"), love ballads (the classic "Woman" is a timeless anthem about how much a man can owe to his other half), and oriental-arranged pop tunes ("Beautiful Boy" is a lovely ode to Sean, while "Dear Yoko" is a cheering track dedicated to the one who inspired most of John's solo work). In my opinion, the best track in the album is "Watching The Wheels", which demonstrates the position John had in the world in this new decade, and how much he wanted to live a life, and have some time just to sit there and watch how the world turned, with the peace of mind he couldn't find in the 60's. The bouns track "Help Me To Help Myself", a piano demo, is also lovely, and would have made a tremendous finished track, if John could have had the time to finish it... Yoko tried to adequate her work to the pop standards, and while the results are not always pleasant (hence "Kiss Kiss Kiss", a horrid tune), she seems to fit in pretty well in another tracks: "Give Me Something" is a perfect follow-up to "I'm Losing You", and this song, joined by "I'm Moving On" (easily the best Yoko contribution to this CD) formed a kind of "suite" that is perfectly listenable. "Yes, I'm Your Angel" and "Beautiful Boys" are attempts to write pop songs, dedicated to her husband and son. Not particularly good. "Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him" has the advantage of having John in background vocals, but also has a great rhythm and it's a nice "dancing" tune (reminding of the bonus track, "Walking On Thin Ice", that song John was working on the day he died). John also does harmony on the heartbreaking "Hard Times Are Over" (another high by Yoko), which sounds even more tearful now we know that John passed away within days of the releasing of this album. So hard times were not over, they were just beginning. These bunch of songs make you think that Yoko WAS an artist, but she should have released her stuff apart from John's... The sound of the remastered CD and the bonus tracks help the album to be better, although "Central Park Stroll" is too short. The sound has improvements, but the quality of the music is what has made this album a classic. By hearing John and Yoko's tracks on this CD you should be able to appreciate the feelings of both, and the experience of living years that seemed to have a brightful future, but were suddenly cut by John's death. This was a happy album, but now it's been associated with the pain that John's death brought to the world. Try not to fall into that. Follow the original spirit of this CD and enjoy the simple things on life. No matter how your life is, there will be some time when hard times are going to be over. | ||
 | Ringo Starr - Beaucoups Of Blues | |
| "It's worth the rain to have a little sunshine" | 2001-02-24 |
| I understand that some people may have certain predjudgements against Ringo Starr's solo carrer, and against this particular album. But this was my first Ringo CD purchase, and I wasn't dissapointed. I was waiting for the boring disaster some reviewers predicted, but instead, I found a country album (you can't review it like a pop album) extremely well-prepared, with some of the finest Ringo's vocal performances I've ever heard, and lyrics that can surprise you when you read them. Chuck Howard and Sorrells Pickard (two major country composers), wrote the majority of songs on this album, and their stories have always something to comment, or some phrases to rescue, hence the title of this review (from "Woman Of The Night"). You can never expect the genial lyrics of John Lennon, the perfectionist musical taste of Paul McCartney or even the solemnity and irony of George Harrison from a person like Ringo Starr, a man who always was in the shadows of the best band in the history of popular music. But you can enjoy, with tolerance and well-prepared ears, an effort like this. This not-pop-but-country experiment was prepared for Ringo by producer Pete Drake, recorded mainly in Nashville by other instrumentists, with Ringo only expected to go, pick up the songs he liked, and add the vocals and some drums and acoustic guitar parts. But the composers and musicians picked up by Drake make a wonderful job: the title track "Beacoups Of Blues" has lovely and sad lyrics, and there are some interesting stories behind "Love Don't Last Long", "Woman Of The Night" and "Loser's Lounge". Of course, there is some straight country music that can bore some people ("Fastest Growing Heartache In The West", "Wine, Women And Loud Happy Songs", "I'd Be Talking All The Time"), but there are also extraordinary love ballads ("Without Her" can easily make you cry, "Waiting" is lovely; and although the vocal duet "I Wouldn't Have You Any Other Way" is a little dullish, it's also listenable) and some unusually good songs, with sparkling geniality and humour (enjoy the rhythm and story behind "$15 Draw"!) or social content (the haunting "Silent Homecoming", apart from fitting perfectly with Ringo's voice and featuring some lovely instrumental tricks and backing vocals by The Jordanaries, the well-known group of Elvis' vocalists, is a very emotional anti-war song, this time from the eyes of a mother who has lost her child). The bouns tracks are also worth noting: Ringo's first solo-released composition "Coochy Coochy" has an interesting rhythm built around one chord!, and "Nashville Jam" is a long instrumental with great quality. It shows Ringo really enjoyed this album. Some said "Nashville Jam" is well worth the price of the CD for itself. Without defending Ringo too much, I don't think this album is a bad purchase. It can bring you minutes of joyful songs and others full of thoughtful memories or remorseful wine-driven love laments, but you can really enjoy the listening. Sure, The Beatles were more much of this, and even Ringo himself did better songs and albums, but "it's worth the rain to have a little sunshine" and this CD is not one to reject. You may like it or not, but you have to recognize that there are some quality songs and production inside it. Buy it if you're a fan. If you're not, know and love The Beatles first. Then you'll love Ringo, just like everyone else does. | ||
![Paul McCartney ,Wings - London Town [Bonus Track]](product_images/1388000/1388017_thumb.jpg) | Paul McCartney ,Wings - London Town [Bonus Track] | |
| "Backwards travellers" | 2001-02-24 |
| When you look back at the Wings catalogue, you can be amazed by the wide number of chart successes you find there. And, no matter how badly was a certain record rated by the critics, they always had to recognize that the McCartney trademark was present, and that the albums and singles weren't something to reject completely, as they would eventually be able to survive and delight a future generation of music fans. Looking it at that way, "London Town", being a good album itself, produced by Paul McCartney, and following his natural good sense of experimenation and musical taste, is not an essential Wings record at all. There are so many good albums made by Paul that this one can only be labeled as a "weak" effort despite the respectable number of good songs inside it. The external circumstances that accompanied the recording of "London Town" were more favorable than the ones that surrounded the making of other Wings albums, since this LP was recorded merely aboard a yatch or with the comfort of the Abbey Road studio. But the results weren't always better: the group was again reduced to its main trio (Paul on every instrument he could afford, wife Linda on keyboards and background vocals, sounding great as always; and the competent work of Denny Laine on guitars), and the songs used to fill up the LP, although listenable and pleasant at times, were overall weak. The combination of acoustic, natural sounds and the new technology of synthesisers, followed up by the always welcomed McCartney catchy soft pop melodies was what made "With A Little Luck" a huge, world-wide hit and was transformed into the trademark of the LP. Synths fill, along with acoustic guitars and orchestral arrangements, big parts of "London Town", the title track (a high point, and a well-told story about living in a big city), "Cafe On The Left Bank"(a throwaway, with good rhythm, though) and the amazing instrumental "Cuff Link". You can also hear lovely acoustic moments, such as the luminous McCartney/Laine ballad "Children Children", the typical McCartney tune "I'm Carrying" (where he talks about love in his sweetest way), the innovative and powerful "Backwards Traveller", the Elvis tribute "Name And Address", and the innocent teenager ballad "Gilfriend". Paul rocks with "I've Had Enough" (another top-40 hit from this album) and the bonus track "Girls' School" (a great track with strong electric guitars and harmonies). Those are the high points. But there are tracks that you can't understand too much. "Morse Moose And The Grey Goose" is supposedly an experimental, innovative song with progressive sound, but it's hard to hear and understand and ends making you feel that it lasted too long. "Deliver Your Children" and "Famous Groupies" are interesting songs in their content, but with weak melodies, and "Don't Let It Bring You Down" is simply boring. Overall, there's always something to hear on this record: be it the vocals, the construction of the backing harmonies, the backwards sounds (the combination between perfect orchestrations, synthesiser work, soft acoustic guitars and studio effects that filled this record transformed Wings into a band of real "backwards travellers"), or the bunch of good songs mentioned above. If you can, buy the remastered edition of this CD, which adds "Mull Of Kintyre", a great, sweet and emotional anthem by Paul to his british roots. When you buy it, try to find the good songs, listen to the stories, and then... Think that Paul has at least ten albums that sound better than this one. Go and buy them too. | ||
![Paul McCartney & Wings - Band on the Run [Remastered & Bonus CD]](product_images/183000/183681_thumb.jpg) | Paul McCartney & Wings - Band on the Run [Remastered & Bonus CD] | |