Revolver

Product Information

Overall, it's still enjoyable, but this is the second box set in a row with some manufacturing / pressing (or mastering? Of course, a few of these were on the "Anthology" series back in the 90's, but many are unique to this set. Ringo’s drumming hits a lot harder, with random bits of noise flying about and cosmic seagulls sailing through the air from the right channel to the left and back again. Songs like “Eleanor Rigby” and “Yellow Submarine” are arguably the finest productions on the album in many ways, so it’s no surprise those were chosen to be paired up for the very first single issued from the album back in August 1966. All in all, some pretty brilliant musicianship was stripped of much of its nuance and detail, buried in a dog pile of instruments mixed onto one track.

With George on sitar and vocals, Paul on tamboura and vocal harmony, and university student Anil Bhagwat on tabla, the song's intricate arrangement began to take shape over several takes.On Metacritic, Revolver: Special Edition holds an aggregate score of 100 out of 100, based on nine reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". LP: From “Taxman” to “Tomorrow Never Knows,” The Beatles’ Revolver has been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and Sam Okell, and sourced directly from the original four-track master tapes with audio brought forth in stunning clarity with the help of cutting-edge technology developed by the award-winning sound team at Peter Jackson’s WingNut Films Productions Ltd.

Check out the bass on “Taxman”, especially the flurry of bass notes in the “If you drive a car…” section – simply amazing, and I’d never been able to hear them before. Now I’ve also got a hot take on the album – I’m gonna agree with Serene Dominic in the Phoenix New Times on this one and admit that I like the original U. So, the other big news about this new Revolver box set is the inclusion of two LPs’ worth of studio outtakes. I’ve never been a huge fan of “I’m Only Sleeping” – its kind of soporific, and I suppose that’s the point, but the “Keeping an eye on the world going by my window” hook is really the only thing it has going for it. It is a strong improvement over the earlier stereo mixes, revealing many new sonic details which were previously not possible.There are a couple of reasons for this – for one, The Beatles were pushing the boundaries of the technology available to them. That the band steered Yellow Submarine from morose folk trifle to boisterous stoner singalong seems improbable, but the tapes don’t lie: through a combination of focused acoustic woodshedding and whimsical studio risks, the band arrived at the more familiar, upbeat Yellow Submarine. Wait until you hear the isolated stereo backing track for “Eleanor Rigby” on the Sessions discs — experiencing that string quartet isolated and in stereo is absolutely spinetingling and mesmerizing. I’ll go out on a limb here and say that of the two, Revolver is actually the more influential – put aside the hype for a moment, and ask yourself what was really done on Sgt. While The Beatles’ musical performances were exceptional as always, in terms of instruments they really hadn’t progressed far from the lead guitar/rhythm guitar/bass/drums configuration of most of their early songs – compared to later albums, the instrumentations are still relatively sparse.

While Revolver doesn’t necessarily have the kaleidoscopic depths of the 2017 remix of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, that’s no slight. The song itself is a bit of a trifle, the guitars were always the selling point, and they sound a lot more high voltage in this new mix.The piano chords and overall vibe of the song still feel a little stilted, which is why in my opinion the Give My Regards to Broad Street version is the only time Paul redid a Beatles song and made an improvement on the original. And Your Bird Can Sing” is not great as a song – take away those barnstorming guitars, and it loses much of its appeal, the song can’t stand alone on its message or melody.

The studio itself became an instrument as George Martin and his engineers, Ken Townsend and 20-year-old newcomer Geoff Emerick, innovated with double-tracking, microphone placement and sound effects. I sit here on the eve of "Now And Then" being released, revisiting some of the Beatles salbums in my collection.Without question, 57 years later Revolver is still one of the greatest albums in history – at the time it was released it was easily the greatest album ever recorded. But on the whole, most songs still only had four instruments on them, the additional studio time for the album being devoted largely to sound effects and other accoutrements. The problem for the band, even though they didn’t tell me at the time, was that the music was getting far ahead of what pop music was in those days,” he says. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (2017), The BEATLES (‘White Album’) (2018), Abbey Road (2019), and Let It Be (2021).