MTV Games and Harmonix released the second major batch of downloadable content for The Beatles: Rock Band on Tuesday.
Each one allows you to complete one of the albums that is partially represented on the disc already. Last month, they added the rest of the tracks from Abbey Road, and you'll have the rest of Rubber Soul in December. This week, it's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band tracks that weren't on the disc.
Guitarists will find that they're playing multi-instrumentalist on many of Sgt. Pepper's deep cuts. You take on the harpsichord for "Fixing A Hole," a wild array of stringed instruments on "She's Leaving Home" and organ and calliope on "Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite."
If you find that last song a bit difficult, blame producer George Martin, the so-called fifth Beatle. Apparently, Martin's instructions for assembling the cacophonous interlude were to take a mess of taped carnival music, cut the reel up, throw the ribbons up in the air and edit them back together.
The two most likely candidates for single-track downloads are the karaoke friendly hits "Lovely Rita" and "When I'm Sixty-Four."
My favorite Pepper track got short shrift on the disc version of The Beatles: Rock Band. The version of George Harrison's trippy Indian excursion "Within You Without You" that made the game was a mash-up that melded the song's lyrics and sitar with the music from "Tomorrow Never Knows." Here we get the track unmolested, with the tabla beats intact.
There's a second take on the record's title track, "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band (Reprise)" – its shorter, peppier and way more lush version of the song. And for guitarists, it contains the storied "Hendrix Chord."
And speaking of chords, the final track in the DLC contains one of the most famous chords in history – the last, sustained note in "A Day in The Life" goes on for 40 seconds. As you sit, holding the buttons, the screen swirls with stars (or maybe tiny microscopic motes). It's a classy way to end a classic record.
But I found myself wishing I could bend that famous final chord. In The Beatles: Rock Band you can't tweak the extended notes with your whammy bar. (Bummer.)
The full song pack costs $13.50 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 users. On the Wii, you have to buy each track individually at $2 a shot – the same price that Microsoft and Sony gamers pay to cherry-pick their favorite songs.
Image courtesy MTV Games
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