Easy Star's Lonely Hearts Dub Band (Bonus Tracks Version)

New York City’s Easy Star All-Stars have recorded their own songs before, but it’s their clouded, dubbed-out versions of other people’s music that has garnered them a following. Like 2003’s Dub Side of the Moon (a reggae take on Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon in its entirety) and 2006’s Radiodread (a hemp-friendly covering of Radiohead’s OK Computer steeped in old Trojan label ska influences), 2009’s Easy Star’s Lonely Hearts Dub Band ambitiously takes on The Beatles’ entire magnum opus Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. The band did their homework in Beatles arrangements and in the history of ‘70s dub, proving to be great musicians. The flowing version of “Lucy In the Sky With Diamonds” boasts some soulful guest vocals by Dancehall star Frankie Paul, and the uplifting take on “Good Morning Good Morning” features Steel Pulse. Michael Rose and Menny More give “A Day In the Life” a new kind of melancholy, but “Fixing a Hole” sounds like it was originally penned as a reggae song.