Get (some) back

 

Despite what a BBC poll once said about Queen, most people would cite The Beatles as the greatest British band of all time. Which by extension pretty much makes them the greatest band of all time, period, seeing as England in the 1960’s became the unlikely epicenter of contemporary popular music. A place that it retained for quite a while, until rnb and hip hop gradually put a (relative) end to that. Music is an ever evolving thing…

Funnily enough, though, the past week sounded very British all over the world, essentially due to the return of Liverpool’s own at the forefront of entertainment news — while Londoner Adele confiscated the charts with her brand new album. Let’s talk about that Trafalgar-esque episode for a quick moment, shall we? The first part of this phenomenon hails from a largely forgotten stack of video recordings the Fab Four shot during the making of their final album, Let It Be. Sir Peter Jackson, of Hobbit fame, took it upon himself to make a 3-part, 6-hour long documentary mini-series of the whole thing, with the intent to shed new light on one of the most infamous episodes in modern music — the break-up of England’s crown (musical) jewel.

While we haven’t seen the documentary yet — but we’ll get there — what we can gather from the (many) interviews, excerpts and trailers we did see is that the project accurately portrays a more nuanced reality than the John-left-the-Beatles-for-Yoko story people have tended to agree on for decades. What this footage shows is that these 4 incredibly gifted musicians still very much enjoyed playing together, creating together, experimenting together. With occasional help from the amazing Billy Preston, who was once called the “5th Beatle” although the documentary quite clearly shows that his involvement in the recording sessions was somewhat accidental. A happy accident, to be sure. In any event, we can’t wait to experience this unique deep-dive in what remains a seminal moment in 20th century (music) history…

Meanwhile, what was bound to happen happened: Miss Adele Adkins literally took over the charts last week with her new — and 4th — studio album, the ever so soberly named 30. While its lead single “Easy On Me” was already atop the Hot 100 charts, the album is now #1 on the Billboard 200 as well, boasting the strongest first week sales of the year — ahead of Drake, and that’s saying a lot. To be honest, we are not all that surprised by the news: this new album is in many ways the best a more mature and worldly Adele had to offer the world, and its success is entirely deserved. Still, we’re happy the world agrees.

And, just like that, British music is still very much taking over the airwaves…