One of my favorite nerdy fanboy exercises is exploring the parallels between Radiohead’s catalog and the Beatles discography. Like most analogies, it’s highly imperfect, but it’s at least a little instructive. The most egregious stretch is lumping everything before Rubber Soul into one amorphous teeny-bopping mass and comparing that to Radiohead’s half-baked debut Pablo Honey. After that it starts to hang together: The Bends is Rubber Soul (a huge step forward, but still a straightforward guitar-pop record), OK Computer is Revolver (the game-changer), Kid A is Sgt. Pepper (the epochal ostensible concept album), Hail To The Thief is the White Album (the overstuffed epic), In Rainbows is Abbey Road (the joyous curtain call), and The King Of Limbs is Let It Be (the less-than-joyous curtain call). This all assumes that Radiohead won’t make another album — and I certainly hope they will, at which point the the comparison will fall apart for good. In the meantime, i’s remarkable how well that all lines up in a Dark Side Of The Moon/Wizard Of Oz type of way. So where does that leave Magical Mystery Tour? It’s Amnesiac, the forgotten stepchild of the canon. Just like Amnesiac isn’t exactly a Kid A sequel, Magical Mystery Tour isn’t exactly a Sgt. Pepper sequel, but both Pepper and Mystery are built around a colorful conceptual conceit, and both of them boast the blending of traditional and forward-thinking influences. They also came out just a few months apart, so like Amnesiac, it’s hard not to see Magical Mystery Tour as leftovers from what came before it — albeit exceptionally tasty leftovers.

Where the analogy breaks down (or, if you’re feeling skeptical, where it’s especially forced) is the fact that Magical Mystery Tour was originally issued as a six-song EP, to which five contemporary singles were tacked on for the American release. And voila! We have ourselves an LP. For being the result of label meddling, though, the final product is remarkably cohesive. Actually, I’ll go a step further: The addition of those singles is what makes Magical Mystery Tour magical. Think about it: What would we be left with if not for the tunefully bombastic “Hello Goodbye,” the dual nostalgic triumphs “Strawberry Fields Forever” and “Penny Lane,” the barstool singalong “Baby You’re A Rich Man,” and the dumbfoundingly wonderful romantic climax “All You Need Is Love”? A couple mood pieces, a handful of Sgt. Pepper retreads and the original EP’s one shining moment, the psychedelic gobsmack “I Am The Walrus,” the sound of the universe bending into a crooked smile. So yeah, not a perfect album, but perfectly imperfect — kind of like Amnesiac.