It’s the time of year for saving money!
By Mark Smotroff
The new six CD and two Blu-ray Disc super deluxe edition box set of ultimate mixes celebrating John Lennon’s 1973 album Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection)is a joyous, almost perfect bounty for fans of this legendary musician.
In general, the Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection) box set is great and in keeping with producer Sean Lennon’s high-quality standards for his ultimate mixes series releases. Here, it presents the Mind Games album in a remixed form which brings more attention to John’s vocals and delivers greater detail to most all of the instrumentation..
There are also discs of “raw” mixes, outtakes, recording “evolution” mini documentaries, elements breakouts as well as elemental mixes which show different sides to the recordings. Together, these different perspectives collected in Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection) peel back the layers revealing often hidden musical constructs which were not immediately apparent. The original production was rich but ultimately a bit dense and somewhat compressed.
I really like some of these discs, especially the “elemental mixes” which kind of reinvent the whole album in new light often without the drums or other notable features. On the “evolution” disc we get to hear intriguing moments such as on “One Day At A Time” which includes Lennon’s lovely falsetto and you can hear some of Michael Brecker’s solo (in part…. more on that in a moment). “Meat City” here is also enlightening, allowing us to hear the ripping electric guitar, the pairing of the twin drummers on the session and different early lyrics. Some cool jamming there!
In keeping with the concept of “playing mind games,” producer Sean Lennon has included a number of “hidden” bonus tracks both on the Blu-ray and Compact Discs. To access them you’ll have to pay attention to your player’s track screen where you’ll notice that the albums start on what is technically “track 2.” If you hit the back / reverse buttons on your controller you’ll get to “track 1.” These are fun Easter Eggs (if you will) and there may well be more I have yet to discover.
On the Ultimate Mix disc you’ll hear Lennon’s demo version of the song he gave to Ringo Starr around that time, “I’m The Greatest” (which appeared on the latter’s smash hit album that year, Ringo). On the Elemental Mixes disc is outtake #4 of “You Are Here.” Perhaps the most fascinating track is and experimental piece called “Mellotron Magic & Slide Guitar” which feels like some of Raymond Scott’s experiments with his early synthesizers and sequencers. There are several others, so I won’t spoil the entire treasure hunt for you all.
The music on Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection) is presented in generally high resolution sound on the two Blu-ray Discs. The fidelity is excellent mirroring the material on the CDs, but richer still. I tend to prefer the DTS HD Master Audio 5.1 surround mixes because they are presented in 192 kHz / 24-bit resolution which sounds overall nicer and more rewarding than the Dolby Atmos (which unfortunately due to industry standards caps out at 48 kHz, 24 bit).
I do understand that Atmos is a different thing than 5.1, but for me these mixes didn’t add a whole lot to the listening experience so I won’t necessarily be going back to them. Overall, both multi-channel mixes keep most of the listening attention to the upfront channels and only uses the rear spaces for periodic overdubs and support instrumentation and vocals. Personally, I think it would’ve been nice if there had been a little bit more immersive activity going on, this feels especially like a missed opportunity on tracks like “Meat City” which is intense and manic, bordering on progressive rock.
As with the Ultimate Mixes packages for Imagine and Plastic Ono Band (which I have reviewed previously, click here and here respectively), Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection) is a very high quality production with a beautiful hardcover book featuring loads of information on the recordings, recollections from the participating musicians as well as Yoko Ono herself and more. There are posters and reproductions of original advertising and promotional cards. I’ve also learned that apparently if you aim a UV light at the CD and Blu-ray Disc artwork, alternate imagery will appear (I hope to get one of those lights soon to try this out!).
Honestly, I only have one gripe on this reissue series which I have talked about in my review of the 2LP Ultimate Mixes vinyl version (on Analog Planet, which you can read by clicking here). In short, for some inexplicable, unexplained reason, Michael Brecker’s near-iconic saxophone solo from “One Day at a Time” has been completely removed or greatly downplayed from (as far as I can tell) almost all versions of this song presented in the set (save for the bit we hear in the aforementioned “Evolution” version of the song. That change makes this collection feel somewhat incomplete. And, unfortunately, this makes the basic Mind Games album here not definitive, no matter how great it sounds (and, again, it generally does sound great!).
Until another remix or remaster is done, our original LPs and CDs will remain the definitive versions.
Regardless, if you are a fan of John Lennon’s music and this album in particular, you’ll want to get a copy of Mind Games (The Ultimate Collection). Its an often overlooked classic which deserves and benefits greatly from this deep dive study.
[Mark Smotroff has been reviewing music at AudiophileReview for many years but can also be found at AnalogPlanet.com. In the past he has written for Sound & Vision, DISCoveries, EQ, Mix and many more. An avid vinyl collector and music enthusiast who has also worked in marketing communications for decades you can learn more about his background at LinkedIn.]
