George Harrison's "Living in the Material World" 50th anniversary deluxe remix sparkles

For George Harrison, the November 1970 release of "All Things Must Pass" possessed all the subtlety of an atomic bomb. The multiplatinum album acted as a coming-out-party, acquainting music lovers the world over with the incredible range of his gifts. But it would be three long years — a veritable eon during that pre-MTV era — before Harrison released the LP’s worthy successor.

"Living in the Material World" ascended the global music charts on the wings of “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth),” Harrison’s second of three post-Beatles chart-toppers. (I’ll save you the trouble, dear reader. The other two are “My Sweet Lord” in 1970 and “Got My Mind Set on You” in 1987, which marked the last time a former Beatle landed a No. 1 song.) While "Living in the Material World" was rightly feted by music critics after the album’s May 1973 release, in the ensuing years, the long shadows of "All Things Must Pass" have obscured much of Harrison’s solo career, prompting Simon Leng to describe the LP as a “forgotten blockbuster.”

With a deluxe new remix courtesy of engineer Paul Hicks and Harrison’s son Dhani, "Living in the Material World" has finally been burnished for our new millennium. As with the finest box sets, the production team has rendered the original contents with considerable fidelity, affording the recordings with greater definition while being assiduously careful about maintaining the artist’s five-decade-old vision.

Consequently, “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)” absolutely glistens in Hicks and Harrison’s hands, reveling in the brightness of the original recording and shimmering with greater instrumental depth. Meanwhile, songs like the ethereal “The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)” and the enigmatic “Try Some, Buy Some” have never sounded better, benefitting greatly from contemporary engineering technology. Even “Miss O’Dell,” the B-side that originally backed “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth),” sparkles under Hicks and Harrison’s direction, bringing the musician’s homage to Apple insider Chris O’Dell into marvelous relief, cowbell and all.

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While the new remixes will, in all likelihood, be unable to remedy "Living in the Material World’s" forgotten blockbuster status, this latest treatment does the original release proud. In contrast with "All Things Must Pass," which featured dozens upon dozens of session players, "Living in the Material World" involved a fairly static group of musicians, a band that included Nicky Hopkins and Gary Wright on keyboards, Klaus Voormann on bass, and Jim Keltner and Ringo Starr on drums. It was a tight and heartily talented group, to say the least, and the deluxe treatment of "Living in the Material World" finds them soaring like never before.