SPOOKY SONGS

A shameless Halloween cash-in that would be amazing if it offered something new and wonderful. It does not. Instead we get one of the weirdest Beatles releases to date. Spooky songs are perhaps songs that have a strange disconcerting edge to them and there are plenty out there I have heard, some so scary I would not want to return to them, such as that album by Scott Walker that haunted me for days, or even that masterful shocker by Comus, or even some of Godspeed You! Black Emperor's work or the nasty "Murder Ballads" of Nick Cave, all unsettling beyond belief.

But The Beatles... yes the sodding Beatles for crying out loud! Perhaps this album is one of the biggest jokes of 2020, surely it cannot be serious. After all it opens with Tomorrow Never Knows which is a masterpiece but it aint scary folks. I Am the Walrus is less scary than this although the lyrics might freak out your grandparents. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds again has weird LSD inspired lyrics but not in the least spooky. It's All Too Much is an oddity that rarely finds its way on a compilation or is that a complication? But its cool to revisit being one of the lesser known Beatles. Long, Long, Long again is not often found on a comp but its pretty good, though not in the least spooky. Finally I'm Only Sleeping is here and unless sleep scares you it is not spooky.

So there it is folks. If you find a cheap CD copy it is perhaps worth grabbing as it is a definitive oddity. It does not feature the spookiest song by Beatles Revolution 9, which scares me silly, and perhaps Happiness is a Warm Gun freaks me out a bit because of how Lennon died. But Halloween will bring out the worst in the mad merchandise market and here is one such item.