This is the 18th post in a daily series. Read about it here and see the list of previous posts here. A new post about “Star Wars” will be posted every day for 40 days leading up to the franchise’s 40th birthday on May 25th.

In addition to the 40th anniversary of “Star Wars” on May 25, this year also has a milestone for The Beatles’ “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” which turns 50 the following week.

To celebrate the occasion of these two anniversaries, Bay Area website Palette-Swap Ninja earlier this week released a full-length concept album titled “Princess Leia’s Stolen Death Star Plans.” According to the website:

It’s the entire Beatles album as accurately as we could record it, only now it tells the story of “Star Wars: A New Hope” — in order. We sweat the details on both sides in an effort to do both cultural milestones justice. Writing hyper-specific lyrics that match the original songs’ cadences; reverse-engineering everything the Beatles recorded, from distorted saxophone riffs to Indian tabla rhythms; recording everything from scratch and learning as we went — well, that’s what takes five years.

The album is (as of this posting, anyway) available to stream on SoundCloud….

…or download for free from Palette-Swap Ninja’s website. It’s also on YouTube with lyric videos by Katrin Auch. You can watch it in one video playlist:

The album is worth checking out for the attention to detail alone. The idiosyncrasies of “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” are all here, and surprisingly, the story of “A New Hope” unfolds rather nicely.

Of all the highlights, perhaps the best part of the album is the inspired line “Luke is in the desert and whining,” sung to the tune of “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.”

You won’t be able to get that out of your head for the rest of the day. Trust me, I have tried.

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