They all live in little boxes
Are you hanging up your stocking on your wall? Well, are you? Punk? I hope it can cope with a giant box set because that is what the record companies are peddling this year
The main contenders are both from 1968, to allow the justification of a 50th anniversary set. Competing for the most luxurious collection of vinyl you don’t want, books you won’t read and CDs that you wish had been released on their own are The Beatles and The Kinks, presenting massively expanded versions of the White Album and The Village Green Preservation Society respectively. “Hey”, they say, “you’ve waited this long, now you can finally hear our stoned studio chatter and run troughs before you die. That will be £130 please.”
The Beatles release is a curious hybrid, a successful remix of the album by Giles Martin alongside demos and early takes. Elements previously buried are highlighted, harsh tones are blunted. The technique works well on recognised misfires such as “Birthday” which now explodes midway through the track even if the song itself cannot be rescued. “Cry baby Cry” moves from a spooky, almost solo, Lennon into a startling psychedelic full band performance. In places though the harsh notes that added jarring strangeness to some of the more saccharine McCartney material are lost. The Kinks box draws from a smaller pool of original album tracks, and presents a bewildering number of b-sides, mono, stereo, live, radio and tv session versions, alongside no less than four sides of Vinyl. Much of this material was available until very recently on a packed 3CD issue for under £10. You pays your money, you takes your choice. Or someone else does, if you’re lucky.
The monthly music review is contributed by James Kerr. James presents the Regal Music Club show on Regal Radio (www.regal-radio.net) and is a member of the local band ‘Snakeskin Shoe Review’. 30 | LINLITHGOW
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