The Beatles - Yellow Submarine Songtrack

(Apple/EMI)

****

Review: Graham Reid

If a Britpop four-piece approached a record company today with these 15 tracks they'd doubtless be told to go away and decide what kind of band they wanted to be. This new compilation - sensibly all the songs from the 1968 animated film - is testament to the extraordinary diversity and confidence these guys had at their peak.

Here are kids' songs (the title track, All Together Now), an international anthem (All You Need is Love), psychedelics (Lucy in the Sky, It's All Too Much, Only A Northern Song), glittering pop-rock (Nowhere Man), retro (the music hall When I'm 64, the piano-rock'n'roll Hey Bulldog), chamber-pop (Eleanor Rigby), Indofusion (Love You Too, Baby You're A Rich Man) and fuzzrock (Think For Yourself).

It's a bit odd to hear Sgt Pepper's midway and Ringo's Help From My Friends remains an acquired taste, but these crisply remastered songs are a reminder of pop's golden age where no one thought to ask what demographic the music might appeal to.