The suspense over which album by the Beatles might be next in line to get a remix and bonus-filled boxed-set treatment is over: It’s officially “Revolver.”
Apple Corps and Universal Music have confirmed that a deluxe celebration of the 1966 release — which, like the Beatle boxes that have preceded it, will include a Giles Martin remix — is in the pipeline for this fall.
An official announcement of the project is not expected to come until some time in September, at which point details about the deluxe package’s contents and a release date will be forthcoming.
Ever since they started pumping out remixes of the Beatles catalog, “Revolver” is the one I’ve been waiting for. I am pumped, stoked and all the rest of it.
The article goes on to say that part of the delay in doing the album was Martin was waiting for technology to advance that would allow them to pick apart stereo elements of tracks recorded to mono (e.g., separating bass and drums recorded to the same track). I can’t help being a little leery of that, but I’ve been pleased with the remixes so far, so I’m hopeful the overall effect sounds natural and not horribly digit-ified.
The current stereo mix is very much of its time, in that you’ll experience very wide separation between elements of the song (drums all the way to the left, voices all the way to the right, etc.). The mixes Giles Martin has been overseeing balance the sound in a way that’s more natural to modern ears. There’s other things to enjoy (like increased clarity in the instrumental parts) but that’s the main thing a casual listener would notice.
Between the two, yes. I think Revolver is one of the worst mainstream, not intending to be provocative or deliberately offensives, covers. It’s so…lame. So badly conceived, so badly executed…
Though I prefer Spinal Tap’s Smell the Glove.
“And I don’t think that a sexy cover is the answer for why an album sells or doesn’t sell because you tell me…the “White Album”, what was that? There was nothing on that goddamn cover.”
I was in my college bookstore back when Spinal Tap came out. I’d not heard of the movie at that time, so I was surprised to see this all black album in the record rack. The heavy metal umlaut was a good sign, but the all black cover made me remark “this is like the ultimate extension of heavy metal album covers. Forget devils and demons, this one is just all black.” I thought it was a “real” album.
It was several years before i finally saw the film. And then I understood: None. None more black.
And it was done by Klaus Voormann, one of their early intimate friends from Hamburg, frequent musical collaborator on solo albums by the Beatles (he played for each of them except for Paul) and bassist of the Plastic Ono Band, and thus one of the numerous candidates for the title of fifth Beatle. But yes, the cover looks amateurish, especially for a professional graphic designer like Voormann.
