Revolver: Special Edition

• 1. Introduction

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  Revolver: Special Edition, released on the 28th of October 2022, is built on a breakthrough that was not yet possible a year before it appeared. As late as October 2021, producer Giles Martin had told Super Deluxe Edition: "I don't think it's ready at this moment in time." He meant the de-mixing software needed to pull apart the sounds layered into the original 1966 recording. That software had been developing for years, but the decisive leap came from a film production team working on a separate Beatles project. What that technology unlocked, who shaped the release, and how critics received it are the questions this documentary explores.

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• 2. The De-Mixing Breakthrough

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  Giles Martin had spoken publicly about wanting to remix the Beatles' pre-Sgt. Pepper albums long before the tools existed to do it. Abbey Road Studios had developed de-mixing software designed to separate the individual sounds within a mixed recording. In July 2021, he told Rolling Stone the software was "getting a lot better." He was, he said, "constantly looking at how we could approach it if I ever get to remix Revolver or Rubber Soul." That desire had existed for years, but caution had kept him from moving before the software was reliable enough for such well-known recordings.

  Martin had a particular reason to see Revolver as a tractable candidate once the tools improved. The album involved less "bouncing down" than later productions and fewer overlapping tracks. "It's not that complex," he noted. That relative simplicity meant the software would face a more manageable problem once it reached the right level.

  Peter Jackson's WingNut Films developed the technology further while working on The Beatles: Get Back. Martin credited that team directly for making the Revolver remix possible. Martin and engineer Sam Okell produced the new stereo mix together.

  In late August 2022, Martin confirmed via Twitter that the remix would go ahead. The official announcement followed on the 7th of September 2022. To mark the occasion, the new mix of "Taxman" was released as a preview on Spotify and iTunes. Martin had also hinted via a second tweet at an additional surround sound mix.

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• 3. Inside the Package

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  The super deluxe edition came in two physical formats: a five-CD set, or a four-LP set paired with a 7-inch EP. Both formats included the album remastered at half speed, in stereo and mono. They also contained session recordings, demos, the EP, and a 100-page book. A separate deluxe edition offered a 40-page book, the new stereo mix, session highlights, and stereo mixes of the singles.

  The 100-page book opened with a foreword by Paul McCartney and an introduction by Giles Martin. Questlove contributed an essay, and author Kevin Howlett wrote the track notes. Photographs of handwritten lyrics, tape boxes, recording sheets, and 1966 print ads appear throughout. The book also draws from the graphic novel Revolver 50: Birth of an Icon, written and illustrated by Klaus Voormann.

  Voormann had created the original album art, and his artwork was restored for the reissue. The record sleeve for the session outtakes used Robert Freeman's proposed cover design. That design showed the heads of the Beatles arranged in a psychedelic circle. "Paperback Writer" and "Rain" had been recorded during the Revolver sessions of 1966 but released separately as a non-album single. Their new mixes appeared on the EP and on streaming services in Dolby Atmos.

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• 4. Universal Acclaim

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  Annie Zaleski of The Guardian awarded the album five out of five stars. Her review described the remix as bringing previously buried details into the light. She found that the backing harmonies on "Here, There and Everywhere" were now more prominent. Their added presence made the track sound like "an old-fashioned rock'n'roll love song." The piano on "I Want to Tell You" bends slightly out of key, and Zaleski heard it as mirroring "the narrator's insecurity." McCartney's "booming walking bass" on "Taxman," she wrote, illuminated "the biting, cynical tone of Harrison's lyrics." "Revolver still sounds so vibrant," she concluded.

  On Metacritic, the release gathered a score of 100 out of 100 from nine reviews, placing it in the site's "universal acclaim" category. The release entered national charts in seven countries in the weeks that followed.

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• 5. A Global Return

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  Revolver: Special Edition debuted at number four on the US Billboard 200 in its release week. In Australia and New Zealand, it climbed higher, reaching number two in both territories. Sweden also placed the release at number four.

  Japan charted the reissue twice: its Hot Albums chart recorded a position of four, while the combined Oricon chart gave it a peak of six. The Dutch Albums chart placed it at number three. Italy's FIMI chart recorded a peak of 17.

  Emile de la Rey is credited in the personnel list as head of machine learning, a title no previous Beatles recording had carried.

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