MUSIC RELEASES TO CONSIDER FOR YOUR COLLECTION

PAUL AND LINDA MCCARTNEY

RAM

UMe/Capitol (50th Anniversary Half-Speed Mastered LP)

*****

There have been umpteen reissues of Paul and Linda McCartney’s critically ravaged (at the time) and critically acclaimed (today) 1971 LP, Ram, and to celebrate the album’s 50th anniversary, yet another version — this time a half-speed mastered vinyl edition — has been unleashed for the McCartney completist.

According to an inner sleeve note, the new release “closely references the 2011 remaster” and is a “vinyl specific remaster.” As with 2020’s 50th anniversary half-speed remaster of the McCartney album, Ram was cut by noted engineer Miles Showell at Abbey Road Studios, utilizing the original master tapes.

Ram 2021 is presented in rather stunning clarity, with little instrumental and vocal bits that were not readily apparent in previous editions now poking through the mix. At times, the album seems almost Pet Sounds-like in the sense that it’s jampacked with inventive vocal and instrumental arrangements and nuance galore — in other words, there is lots going on, and the half-speed remastering helps bring much of it to the surface. (The vocal arrangement on “Dear Boy” is very Brian Wilson-like, as is the album-closing mini-masterpiece, the perfectly orchestrated “The Back Seat of My Car.”)

Examples abound: Denny Seiwell’s crashing cymbals on the final verse of “Too Many People”; the hi-hat taps and the bright, shiny guitars on “Heart of the Country”; Paul McCartney’s vocal vamping during the guitar solo of the glorious “Eat at Home”; and various percussive touches throughout.