Less an album than a singles collection

This Sgt. Pepper follow-up is less an album than a mini-soundtrack and collection of singles and B-sides. As such, there's no unifying concept, but the psychedelic production held over from the Beatles' last masterpiece is more than enough to supplement the crisp (and sometimes lazy) songwriting.

The album opens with its title track, which is a sing-along from Paul McCartney that attempts to recreate the mood of Sgt. Pepper but is more repetitive and less catchy. Really, a bridge and chorus, along with a few horn overdubs, is all there is to the song. Paul soon redeems himself, though, with "Fool on the Hill," a piano ballad augmented with woodwinds overdubs. It's sophisticated storytelling pop in the vein of Paul's earlier tracks "Eleanor Rigby" and "For No One," both from Revolver.

Then there's the two-minute instrumental "Flying," the only track with songwriting credited to all four Beatles. It's fast and trippy, with organ licks, slap-happy bass guitar and a few harmony vocals at the end. Its eclectic fadeout is the perfect lead-in to "Blue Jay Way," a dreamy George Harrison track with a fade-up organ and a lazy, distorted lead vocal. It's the kind of acid-production usually only given to John Lennon tracks, but it works.

Paul takes hold again with "Your Mother Should Know," an irresistable but half-assed pop song that's little more than a verse that, at the end, admonishes us to "sing it again." Both piano breaks are identical, but they're just as happy, and I like how the lead vocal transplants itself from the left channel to the right between verses. This is filler that has to stretch to even reach the two-minute mark, but I've always enjoyed it.

Then we reach the hits, beginning with "I Am the Walrus," a Lennon song that has volumes written about it. Indeed, it is a great song, but it's not one of my stand-still favorites. John's vocals are distorted into real ugliness, and the string section barely knows how to cope with this nonsense-lyrics award winner as the orientation of the song keeps changing. It all disintegrates into well-ordered musical chaos and, as with a few other Magical Mystery Tour songs, it has the perfect fade.

Paul's A-side is "Hello Goodbye," a love-it or hate-it pop song that just dares you to tally up its overuse of the word "hello." It's piano, drums and strings with occasional rhythm guitar licks, dumb as hell (especially sandwiched between two of Lennon's most universally brilliant songs), but it's hard to resist and (deja vu) has a terrific false-fade.

Just listen to the production on the "No one I think is in my tree..." verse of "Strawberry Fields Forever." First come the sparse horns, then the backward hi-hat, string and finally the snare drums. It's build-up upon build-up for what is essentially an obnoxious song. SFF is lavished with such careful production, though, that it's a hard song to deny. Its A-side, Paul's "Penny Lane," is pure mood-pop brilliance, with prominent, bouncy bass and piano that paints a vivid cityscape complete with bell ringing. And I love the piccolo solo.

John's "Baby You're a Rich Man" is also a favorite of mine, with intricate bagpipe-on-speed overdubs, rollicking bass and falsetto lead vocals, and it leads into the anthemic album closer, "All You Need is Love." It opens with the French national anthem (or is it?) and a hippie chorus and is augmented with string overdubs and a rich bass guitar sound, but John's simple, emotional vocals steal the show. This is probably the most McCartney-like Lennon song, trite but oh-so-loveable.

And that's the album, 11 songs of varying quality but all songs I've liked for years. Magical Mystery Tour doesn't have the balance of a Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road, but I have a special fondness reserved for it nonetheless.