A magical ride

Cursed to exist forever in the shadows of its monumental predecessor “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” the death of manager Brian Epstein and the album’s failed film, “Magical Mystery Tour” survives as one of the Beatles catalog’s biggest oddballs.

More than just the less-popular younger brother of “Sgt. Pepper,” the six tracks off the British-released “Magical Mystery Tour” EP are essentially the swan songs of the band’s psychedelic era. Merging those with a few of the band’s best singles for the American release yielded one of their most eclectic and interesting albums.

Benefiting from the impressive studio mastery of George Martin, the instrumentation on “Magical Mystery Tour” is possibly the band’s most diverse effort.

The extensive production of nostalgic singles “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane” certainly make Martin’s presence felt with instruments like the piccolo trumpet and mellotron, but it also shows The Beatles at their most successful combination of pop hooks and experimental songwriting.

This experimental energy, possibly left over from the massive studio adventures of “Sgt. Pepper,” makes for many of the band’s most bizarre songs.
The sound effects and volatile lyrics of centerpiece “I Am the Walrus” and ghostly sleepwalk of “Blue Jay Way” bring out the most hallucinatory sides of John Lennon and George Harrison – to say nothing of “The Fool on the Hill,” one of McCartney’s most cerebral and complex songs.

Addled slightly by the comparatively mediocre “Your Mother Should Know” and the fact that it wasn’t created as a cohesive album, “Magical Mystery Tour” does seem to fall between the cracks when some people think about The Beatles’ best.

But, if anything, it shows with perfect clarity almost every feature that made the group’s music brilliant: otherworldly psychedelic odysseys, melodies that will never leave your head, studio mastery and an unrivaled approach to pop songwriting.