Fantastic. My favorite Beatles album remastered! No more of this crap 1987 CD. It hasn’t sounded this good since I listened to it again and again on my walkman when I was in grade school, on this dubbed cassette that I’m surprised didn’t wear itself out. Which one am I talking about? Magical Mystery Tour of course! Step right this way…
I always felt that this Beatles soundtrack/compilation always got the short stick, even though many friends have cited “I Am The Walrus” and “Strawberry Fields Forever” as their favorite John Lennon songs, if not their overall Beatles favorites. Everyone seems to skip over George’s “Blue Jay Way,” for instance, which is a shame. This particular song really shines on the remaster, with Harrison’s droning Hammond organ finally allowed to show its many timbres. In addition, the marvelous cello playing by the uncredited session musician also is given a proper place in the mix, giving the track a proto-ambient feel with the way it sets the tone alongside the organ.
And then there’s Paul McCartney’s underappreciated songs of pure pop, “Hello Goodbye” and “Penny Lane.” The new mixes give these tracks the space to rock in the case of “Hello Goodbye” and it’s iconoclastic coda, and you get a real sense of McCartney’s reimagined Liverpool neighborhood now. You can also tell that even though these aren’t fan favorites, they were given the love and care as much as Lennon’s songs that everyone seems to proclaim to be the best of the crop on this album.
