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The Best of George Harrison	The Concert for Bangladesh	Living in the Material World
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Amazon.com:
It's hard to imagine, but Beatles resident mystic George Harrison has arguably become the band's most curmudgeonly cynic. We offer as evidence this splendidly remastered 30th-anniversary edition of his 1970 multidisc solo epic. If the mini-boxed set's booklet and twin inner CD sleeves won't convince you (the album's familiar cover is colorized and altered to include backdrops of a freeway-tangled cityscape and nuclear reactor cooling towers, respectively), then maybe his liner-note apology for Phil Spector's "big production" (kind of like Da Vinci grousing about Mona's crooked smile) or his laconic, stripped-down, 2000 rethink of "My Sweet Lord" will. With such a mindset, it's unsurprising Harrison has allowed a nearly decade-and-a-half gap to grow between recordings. Still, no amount of grumpy auto-revisionism can subtract from the admittedly overwrought majesty of these tracks, which were the logical sonic extension of Abbey Road. It remains Harrison's unequaled masterpiece. The devolved "My Sweet Lord" aside, the bonus tracks here offer new insight: the unreleased "I Live for You" further highlights the album's oft overlooked country facet; spare takes of "Beware of Darkness" and "Let It Down" underscore the strength of Harrison's songwriting; an alternate backing track of "What Is Life" demonstrates the meticulousness of Spector's production. And then there's the project's truly stellar session lineup, which included Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Klaus Voorman, Jim Gordon, Dave Mason, Badfinger, Billy Preston, Ginger Baker, Carl Radle, Gary Brooker, Jim Price, Bobby Keys, Pete Drake and, it turns out, even Phil Collins! --Jerry McCulley

Rating : - Disappointment - the sound is still murky
I first owned the three-record set and later purchased the CD. The songs were great but the production was murky. I recently purchased the remastered CD, hoping for better production. I was disappointed. Some songs sound great: I'd Have You Anytime, My Sweet Lord, If Not for You, Run of the Mill, Apple Scruffs, and I Dig Love are clean and the guitars sound bright and clear. Many of the other songs, however, still sound like mud. The lead guitar is often barely audible in songs like Wah-Wah, Let It Down, Beware of Darkness, Ballad Of Sir Frankie Crisp, Awaiting On You All, and Isn't It a Pity, which is a shame because the playing is so gorgeous. Even songs like What is Life and Art of Dying could be improved if the guitars were louder and the background cleaner. Too much of the sound gets mushed together. I don't know whose fault this is - could be the producer or the sound mixer. The remastered cd provides little improvement in the production of most of the songs that include vocals. On the other hand, the sound of the instrumental songs (what was originally the third record of the three-record set) is much cleaner, though no one should purchase this CD for these instrumentals.

Ideally, Emd/Capitol should issue a one-CD version of this album, deleting the instrumentals (no one buys this cd for the instrumentals), adding I Live for You (which is on this CD) and You (which is on Extra Texture but was originally recorded during the All Things Must Pass sessions), cleaning up the wall of Sound (My Sweet Lord and Apple Scruffs are examples of good production for this music) and putting the guitars (lead and acoustic), piano, drums, and base up front and finally giving these great songs the production they deserve.

Bottom line: Three stars. The songs are great. The instrumentals are filler. The slide guitar, when you can hear it, is incredibly beautiful. If you don't already have this CD, it is absolutely worth a listen. If you already have the older CD, don't bother getting the new one.