Like many sentient beings, The Beatles' Revolver is one of my all-time favorite records. It is a timeless piece of art as it is. But, at the end of October, we will get the chance to hear the record in a whole new way and to hear versions of tracks we haven't heard before.
The new collection will include a stereo mix of the record sourced directly from the original four-track masters. This special edition was put together using the de-mixing technology developed by Peter Jackson for his Get Back project.
From Rolling Stone:
It's the one where the lads set out to remake themselves from scratch, trying psychedelia, chamber music, Indian raga, Memphis soul. As Giles Martin says, "Revolver is an album where you could listen to each song and go, 'Oh, this is the direction they're going to go in next.' And be wrong every single time. The Beatles are all in the same zone, coming of age. But it's four individual members, with four eclectic styles, all willing to surf the same wave. And that's what this album's about. It's about that 'What have you got? How crazy is it? Well, I can out-crazy you.'"
This Revolver is full of fresh surprises. For one thing, you wouldn't expect one of the deepest emotional revelations to be "Yellow Submarine." The world thinks of this as the kiddie song they dashed off for Ringo. But John's home demo shows how it began as a melancholy acoustic ballad, evoking Plastic Ono Band. The idea that John's sad confession got reworked into Ringo belting the world's favorite kiddie singalong — that's the whole Revolver journey right there. Who else could take a simple song idea through so many evolutions, only for it to end up so perfectly right? Only the Beatles.
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The Special Edition has 63 tracks in all, with the original album in stereo, mono, on Dolby Atmos, plus session outtakes, on five CDs, four vinyl LPs, and a seven-inch EP of the "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" EP, both sides of the standalone single cut during Revolver. There's also a 100-page hardbound book of photos and essays by McCartney ("all in all, not a bad album"), Giles Martin, cover artist Klaus Voormann, hip-hop legend Questlove, and historian Kevin Howlett. The Standard Edition has the original 14-track album on CD, vinyl, and digital.
Read the rest here.
Thumbnail: Inset of Revolver album art.
