Over the years it has become more and more popular for barbershop groups to create themed recordings.  The Ritz were one of the first quartets to record a Christmas CD, the Vocal Majority made several symphony recordings and most recently Max Q released a very popular children's CD that was appropriate for tiny tots as well as grown ups.  The 2009 3^rd place International Medalists Storm Front have blazed a new trail in musically themed recordings with "Harmony", a collaboration of Beatles music.  The Fab Four meets The Funny Four in this latest creation that focuses on Beatles songs that changed the face of popular music.  While barbershop groups have sung Beatles music in the past, this is the first recording ever dedicated strictly to the band's art from beginning to end.

     The album begins with a wonderful arrangement of Eleanor Rigby and what I like about this song as well as many of the other tunes is that the arrangements stay true to the style of the original song and are not "barbershopped."  It's as close as you can get to the true song without adding instruments.  All eleven tunes performed on the CD were arranged by Jay Giallombardo. 

     Another element to the recording that I liked was the sound design created for some of the songs.  The Beatles were known for being a revolutionary band, pushing the limits of sound and artistry that helped the rock art form excel into new territories of musical expression.  Some of the sounds they filtered into their music was quite edgy and Storm Front, keeping true to the songs, added the same kind of artistic choices in their performances.

     While I enjoyed the artistic freedoms that Storm Front has achieved, my only real negative comment would be the overuse of auto-tuning which has become a regular post-production staple for many of our top quartets.  By the time I got into the six and seventh songs it seemed as though all the recordings sounded too perfect and computer controlled.  It's my opinion that these auto-tuning software programs need to be used sparingly and not for every chord of every song.  When entire songs are manipulated with auto-tuning, the musicality becomes lost and fake.

     My overall impression of "Harmony" is positive and I recommend it to any barbershopper, particularly a Beatle's fan.  A good judge of a quality recording is whether or not you leave the CD in your car's CD player.  I have it in my #1 slot and listen to it at least twice a week.  You can purchase the recording at http://www.stormfrontquartet.com/.