mostly david ephgrave

This evening, I treated myself to a from-the-beginning-to-the-end listen of the newly remixed fiftieth anniversary edition of the White Album (that no-one on the planet refers to by its real name ‘The Beatles’). Only the other day, it occurred to me why the band might have decided to make this specific record eponymously-titled; the album they released the year before was essentially put out under a pseudonym - Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band - to give them freedom to step outside (love) of their perceived identity and try new ideas, so in that spirit, it makes sense that they’d want to make the album that followed, which was essentially back-to-basics (as far as any Beatles project was) - more firmly-rooted in their own brand again. That said, it’s a shame they couldn’t go with the working title ‘A Doll’s House’ (which was nabbed by the prog band Family) as that would have reflected the eclectic tracklist perfectly. One thing returning to the...

For the past few days, I’ve been enjoying listening to one of Paul McCartney’s least well-regarded albums, Pipes of Peace . To give you an idea of how little it’s liked, even the majority of fans on his official forum - who you'd think would have a more red-rose-speedway-tinted view toward his work - find it hard to say a good thing about it. When it was announced that it would be remastered and re-released as the next instalment of his current reissue series (alongside the critically acclaimed Tug of War), the news was met with derision on the Macca Message Board (though you should never listen to people on the Internet. Especially bloggers; they’re the worst). Even I, a full-time ‘McC advocate ’, pulled a face when I heard about it - and questioned why he’d choose it over everything else. Not that I haven’t given the album a fair chance in the past. Every so often, I return to the oft-neglected or derided parts of his back catalogue (in a loose sense, I'm referri...