All Things Must Pass was a self-consciously massive and myth-making statement. Designed to showcase George Harrison’s songwriting (by this point equal to his former bandmates Lennon and McCartney), it was the first three-record set of studio recordings, and compiled songs that had been ignored by The Beatles, sometimes for years. “My Sweet Lord” utilizes bottomless layers of droning guitars, in line with Harrison’s stated goal of finding a meeting point between Indian classical and African-American gospel music.

Phil Spector applied his signature Wall of Sound to the tracks, which added considerable gravitas to the thunderous, anguished “Wah-Wah” and the Motown-like “What is Life.” The album grounds the liturgical concerns of the songs in pop’s physicality, and the vast sound that results feels mysterious and ancient. The improvised jams that populate the third disc are negligible. Still, most of the 18 fully formed songs that precede them are rightful classics, including the ominous “Beware of Darkness,” which is perhaps Harrison’s best.