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The album was just a pastiche, and “reeks of horns and harps, harmonica quartets, assorted animal noises and a 91-piece orchestra.” I actually agree with that.

The album was just a pastiche, and “reeks of horns and harps, harmonica quartets, assorted animal noises and a 91-piece orchestra.” I actually agree with that. I find Sgt. Pepper's to be harsh and gimmicky in production (e.g. left-right channel wipes because stereo was a novelty). I appreciate their contribution to change in music, but not so much their actual sound. Sometimes I enjoy covers more, like Fiona Apple's Across the Universe. I don't know if that speaks to my sound preference or simply when I was coming of age. Similarity, I never really liked Nirvana that much, but they certainly changed the sound of popular music. In both cases, was it really the band, or did they simply become the havee of change that was already happening? Either way, you'll always get reviews that seem laughable in hindsight because significant change fundamentally creates a sense of culture shock.

chungy 4y ago
> (e.g. left-right channel wipes because stereo was a novelty) It's worth remembering that all studio releases and masters of the Beatles were done entirely in monoaural sound. Stereo mixes didn't happen until well after the band broke up and lost all creative control over the material. When stereo was new, there was a tendency to overdo it, and that's what happened with stereo mixes of The Beatles: the older ones sound terrible and are not representative of what the band intended. You'll often find the hardcore fans adamant that the songs must always be listened to in the original mono mixes, and this is a large reason why.
- deleted 4y ago
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- iggldiggl 4y ago
  > It's worth remembering that all studio releases and masters of the Beatles were done entirely in monoaural sound. That's not quite right. First of all, Abbey Road was done fully in stereo right from the start, with the band's full creative input. Secondly, all the previous studio albums were all released both in mono and stereo versions right from the start, so contemporary stereo mixes were done for all previous albums, too. What's true though is that after their first albums, once the Beatles started getting personally involved with the mixing sessions, they usually only bothered attending the sessions for the mono mixes and left the stereo mixing to George Martin and whoever the respective recording engineer at the time was, right up until around the time of the White Album, where they finally started getting slightly more involved with the stereo mixes, too. (And then like I mentioned Abbey Road was only done in stereo.) The stereo versions of their first two albums were also hamstrung by only having two-track recordings to work with, so even beyond the initial tendency to treat stereo as a gimmicky novelty there wasn't much that could have been done beyond panning the vocals to one side and the instrumental backing to the other side, anyway. (Which is indeed an argument for preferring the mono editions of those albums, unless you need a Karaoke version of those songs :-) ) > Stereo mixes didn't happen until well after the band broke up and lost all creative control over the material. The only case where that is sort of true is with Help! and Rubber Soul, which were remixed in the 80s for their CD re-release, and where that remix has mostly supplanted the original stereo mixes. (Though at least those remixes were done by George Martin, too, and not somebody else random.) Beyond that, there are also the recent remixes of the subsequent albums, though at least for now those are being offered as additional versions, with the original mixes still being available, too.
Supermancho 4y ago
The article isn't about how The Beatles got bad reviews, but how Sgt Pepper was bad. I think that's borne out in history. The only populist song (to some degree) is Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. > The reviewer admits that the Beatles were once good in the past Sgt Pepper was a concept album that didn't work, but was released on momentum based on a previous track record.
- jemmyw 4y ago
  I don't know about populist but it's also got "With a Little help From my Friends" and "When I'm Sixty-Four" which are both very well known. And then "A Day in the Life": > It remains one of the most celebrated songs in music history, appearing on many lists of the greatest songs of all time, and being commonly appraised as the Beatles' finest song. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Day_in_the_Life https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Day_in_the_Life

chungy 4y ago

> (e.g. left-right channel wipes because stereo was a novelty) It's worth remembering that all studio releases and masters of the Beatles were done entirely in monoaural sound. Stereo mixes didn't happen until well after the band broke up and lost all creative control over the material. When stereo was new, there was a tendency to overdo it, and that's what happened with stereo mixes of The Beatles: the older ones sound terrible and are not representative of what the band intended. You'll often find the hardcore fans adamant that the songs must always be listened to in the original mono mixes, and this is a large reason why.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
iggldiggl 4y ago
> It's worth remembering that all studio releases and masters of the Beatles were done entirely in monoaural sound. That's not quite right. First of all, Abbey Road was done fully in stereo right from the start, with the band's full creative input. Secondly, all the previous studio albums were all released both in mono and stereo versions right from the start, so contemporary stereo mixes were done for all previous albums, too. What's true though is that after their first albums, once the Beatles started getting personally involved with the mixing sessions, they usually only bothered attending the sessions for the mono mixes and left the stereo mixing to George Martin and whoever the respective recording engineer at the time was, right up until around the time of the White Album, where they finally started getting slightly more involved with the stereo mixes, too. (And then like I mentioned Abbey Road was only done in stereo.) The stereo versions of their first two albums were also hamstrung by only having two-track recordings to work with, so even beyond the initial tendency to treat stereo as a gimmicky novelty there wasn't much that could have been done beyond panning the vocals to one side and the instrumental backing to the other side, anyway. (Which is indeed an argument for preferring the mono editions of those albums, unless you need a Karaoke version of those songs :-) ) > Stereo mixes didn't happen until well after the band broke up and lost all creative control over the material. The only case where that is sort of true is with Help! and Rubber Soul, which were remixed in the 80s for their CD re-release, and where that remix has mostly supplanted the original stereo mixes. (Though at least those remixes were done by George Martin, too, and not somebody else random.) Beyond that, there are also the recent remixes of the subsequent albums, though at least for now those are being offered as additional versions, with the original mixes still being available, too.

Supermancho 4y ago

The article isn't about how The Beatles got bad reviews, but how Sgt Pepper was bad. I think that's borne out in history. The only populist song (to some degree) is Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. > The reviewer admits that the Beatles were once good in the past Sgt Pepper was a concept album that didn't work, but was released on momentum based on a previous track record.

jemmyw 4y ago
I don't know about populist but it's also got "With a Little help From my Friends" and "When I'm Sixty-Four" which are both very well known. And then "A Day in the Life": > It remains one of the most celebrated songs in music history, appearing on many lists of the greatest songs of all time, and being commonly appraised as the Beatles' finest song. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Day_in_the_Life https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Day_in_the_Life