The Beatles – The Light Appears

Paul and Linda McCartney – Ram (Archive Collection – 2CD Edition) (2012)

Posted on July 3, 2025 by Michael

Like his first post Beatles album, Ram credited to Paul and Linda McCartney, was not well received upon release. Retrospective reviews have been far kinder and in some quarters its considered something of a classic. John Lennon heard it differently, with a few of the songs credited as being digs at McCartney’s former bandmate including first track “Too Many People” and it’s line, “too many people preaching practices”. With an echoey beginning and strong melody line, it’s a great opener.

“Ram On” is the same verse over and over again sung over a ukelele, it later appears as a reprise. “Dear Boy” sees McCartney appreciating his love for Linda with sly digs at her ex on how he did not appreciate what he had, it’s also one of the most Beatles sounding tracks. Both “Heart Of The Country” and closer “The Back Seat Of My Car” are terrific, breezy bits of music with no shortage of melodies.

At nearly six minutes, “Long Haired Lady” sees Linda take co-lead on a track that gets better as it goes on, the line “love is long” is repeated many times over. The highlight of the album is McCartney’s first solo #1 single in the US, “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey”. Separate songs stitched together by engineer Eirik Wangberg, the clever technique recalls past Beatles glories like the second half song suite of Abbey Road. It starts off as a dreamy track before getting more jaunty in the second half, it’s a remarkable slice of 70s pop rock. The entire album has a loose feel to it that really works, one where everything feels just fine.

The Archive Collection reissue from 2012 adds a further 8 songs to the original album including excellent first single post Beatles, “Another Day”. Describing an ordinary day for the rest of us, it’s similar in style to some of his past songs and British singles from The Kinks and blur. Bluesy B-side “Oh Woman, Oh Why” has a terrific guitar riff before giving way to a few more tuneful shorter tracks and the harder rocking 8-minute “Rode All Night”.

Ram – 9/10

Extras Disc – 7.5/10

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10 Favourite Songs of 2023

Posted on January 1, 2024 by Michael

10. Slowdive – Alife: A mix of singing between Rachel Goswell and Neil Halstead, “Alife” was the last single released from Slowdive’s album, everything is alive. The ocean of guitar with buried vocals is a pop song from another dimension, one with a constant refrain of “two hard lives are hard lives with you”. Love is in the air.

9. Lana Del Rey – A&W: One of the most unique tracks in popular music in 2023 was “A&W” from Lana Del Rey. Instead of hamburgers, the song instead refers to an “American Whore”. A song of two halves, the track is an unusual mix of folk and trap music, two styles that have figured in her music throughout Del Rey’s career.

8. Belle and Sebastian – When We Were Very Young: Belle and Sebastian released another great record early in the year. Containing the classic Stuart Murdoch line, “I wish I could be content with the football scores”, “When We Were Very Young” is another B&S track for all the outsiders.

7. Emma Anderson – Clusters: From an album bathed in light and twinkling stars, last track “Clusters” from Emma Anderson is one of the best. Her voice floats above the air with lines like, “all the pretty boys/all the pretty girls”, then when she sings “dodododo”, it’s impossible not to sing along.

6. Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit – Save the World: Jason Isbell released one of the most powerful songs of living in America with “Save the World” about a school shooting. Grappling with senseless violence is something virtually all of us deal with every week whether a personal story or one read in the paper. Isbell’s track shows you’re not alone in trying to figure this out.

5. Yo La Tengo – Apology Letter: Not released as a single, one of the most memorable songs on the latest from Yo La Tengo is the song, “Apology Letter”. Ira Kaplan sings the funny/sad line, “And then I got mad because you got mad/another one of my delightful quirks/what a jerk”.

4. Robert Forster – Tender Years: One of the highlights of the latest album from Robert Forster was his tribute to his wife, “Tender Years”. The touching song is an easy going track lead by a strumming guitar and features the line, “I’m in a story with her/No, I can’t live without her”. Love is definitely in the air here. (Video released in November 2022)

3. The Beatles – Now and Then: One of the most haunting sounds of 2023 was hearing John Lennon signing the first words “I know it’s true…” in the “Now and Then” song released as an official single by The Beatles. A much better track than what the band released in the 1990s, the song was not without its detractors… but the rest of us loved it.

2. blur – The Narcissist: Like other “nostalgia acts” releasing new music in 2023, blur released a track sure to be one of their finest with “The Narcissist”. One that will be sung loudly at future concerts, the line “I’ll be shining light in your eyes/you’ll probably shine it back on me” is spine tingling.

1. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – Easy Now: One of Noel Gallagher’s best tracks of his solo career, “Easy Now” was released in early 2023 with a memorable video featuring Milly Alcock from House of the Dragon. One of Noel’s best vocals that he uses to great effect. The skyscraper chorus rivals his most lighters up in the air tracks with his former band, Oasis.

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Favourite Distant (Re)Discoveries of 2022

Posted on January 2, 2023 by Michael

5. George McCrae – Rock Your Baby (Song): Likely heard one night while listening to the Top of the Pops podcast on the BBC, somehow I had never heard this track before even though it is one of the biggest selling singles of all time at 11 million units. A staggering achievement for this understated slice of R&B disco that slinks along in it’s rhythmic funk. One that works as well on the dancefloor or while holding your baby on the couch.

4. Courtney Barnett – Before You Gotta Go (Song): I missed listening Barnett’s Things Take Time, Take Time album upon release in late 2021 and instead listened in early 2022. A grower of an album with several highlights. One of them being this track of breaking up but wanting to remain friends or at least go out with good memories. The video is equally as great.

3. Siouxsie and the Banshees – Icon (Song): Working through the Banshees catalogue, Join Hands was reviewed back in August. The album proved to be a grim listen at times, lacking some of the pop smarts of the band’s other work. Still, the track “Icon” was a standout. The slow building song changes midway to thundering drums before exploding into life.

2. Radiohead – Kid A (Album): Kid A is an album I’ve listened to off and on for 20 years but never for more than a few tracks at a time and had never really done a deep dive into the tracks. Released after the mega selling OK Computer, Kid A split opinion in the rock community, perhaps doing exactly what Thom Yorke was hoping. Listening to the album and reading Steven Hyden’s excellent book, This Isn’t Happening, was a personal highlight of enjoying art in multiple mediums in 2022.

1. The Beatles – Revolver (2CD Deluxe Edition) (Album): Rating another Giles Martin remix of an album by The Beatles is hardly the stuff of surprise at this point. Still, it’s hard to ignore when the attention gets turned to one of the greatest albums of all time in Revolver. The highlight of these packages, regardless of which edition you choose, is the bonus material. Hearing the all too familiar songs in different takes is thrilling. From instrumentals (“Eleanor Rigby”), stripped down versions (“Tomorrow Never Knows”) or raw takes (“Here, There and Everywhere”), the bonus album was a delight.

Album Reviews

The Beatles – Revolver Special Edition (Deluxe 2CD) (2022)

Posted on December 18, 2022 by Michael

Following up on Rubber Soul, The Beatles made another leap forward in 1966 with their seventh album, Revolver. This has now received the remixed treatment courtesy of Giles Martin. Revolver contains many of the elements that would later show up on Sgt Pepper – a signature Ringo Starr track (“Yellow Submarine”), George Harrison Eastern influences (“Love You To”), and a genre bending closing track (“Tomorrow Never Knows”). Only one single appears on the album, Paul McCartney’s haunting ballad “Eleanor Rigby”.

Harrison gets the premier slot with his bass driven “Taxman” who’s sound would later be appropriated by The Jam. John Lennon shines on the heavy eyelid pop of “I’m Only Sleeping” and the Peter Fonda quoting “She Said She Said”. McCartney turns in the lovely ballad “Here There and Everywhere” as well as the Motown horns of “Got to Get You Into My Life”. While Sgt Pepper’s remains more popular in the mainstream, in the last several years, Revolver has grown in stature over the years to become an aficionado favourite.

Fans of The Beatles will already own Revolver in many forms over the years, so it is the disc of outtakes that will drive the interest in this release. The second disc starts with the revved up single “Paperback Writer” and it’s classic B-side “Rain”, both in 2022 stereo mixes. Highlights of disc two include Take 1 of “Tomorrow Never Knows” that dials down the psychedelia for a more straightforward track with Lennon’s voice sounding like it is coming through a radio. “Doctor Robert” has a drier sound that pushes Lennon’s vocals to the forefront.

McCartney’s “For No One” appears as an instrumental backing track and later, “Here, There and Everywhere (Take 6)” has a much rawer vocal than the released version. The cartoonish effects of “Yellow Submarine” do not appear on Take 4 which makes it sound like a more mature folk sea shanty. Overall, the outtakes disc does a winning job of turning songs heard hundreds of time before into a must listen that brings out different shades and sounds to well worn tracks.

Revolver – 10/10

Outtakes – 10/10