We’ve featured all manner of Beatles-related content with you in the past week, but we’d be remiss not to review the remastered reissues of their albums themselves. Read on for our take on the long-awaited CDs that arrive in stores tomorrow…
The Beatles
In Mono; Stereo Box Set; Individual stereo albums: Please Please Me; With the Beatles; A Hard Day’s Night; Beatles for Sale; Help!; Rubber Soul; Revolver; Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band; Magical Mystery Tour; The Beatles; Yellow Submarine; Abbey Road; Let It Be; Past Masters
Rock (Apple/Capitol)
Fair warning: If you are not already among the billions who adore the Beatles, the newly remastered CD editions of their work will not necessarily convert you. These are, after all, the same songs that have been out there soundtracking lives for decades now.
Yet in a certain sense, they really aren’t. Beatlemaniacs of all degrees who re-purchase these beloved albums are in for a listening experience that is nothing short of revelatory. No knowledge of the technical remastering process is required to notice the difference between these and the iffy first wave of Beatles CDs that was issued in 1987. All it takes is one listen to a song you thought you’d memorized down to the last grace note to realize how much you’ve been missing.
So pick up a favorite album or two individually, or spring for the reasonably-priced complete stereo box set and dive in. (The mono mixes, while arguably preferable for the earliest albums, are available only as a beautiful but costly limited-edition box set—a treasure for a true Beatles obsessive.) Perhaps you’ll start with the band’s 1963 debut, Please Please Me: “I Saw Her Standing There” screams out of the speakers as if the young rock’n'roll heart-throbs are performing right in front of you at Liverpool’s crammed Cavern Club. By 1964′s A Hard Day’s Night, every George Harrison guitar lick, every Ringo Starr drumbeat or tambourine shake is hitting with a crisply audible force. And those voices! The remasters let you not only hear but practically see how John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and Harrison’s vocals stack up in giddy harmony. That sense of physical presence grows ever more thrilling as you work your way through the catalog. Never before have the studio explorations of 1966′s Revolver, 1967′s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and beyond felt quite so wondrously otherworldly.
To say the remasters sound perfect would be to miss the point, though. It’s the minute human flaws and unpredictable variations heard so clearly here that make even tunes as overplayed as 1968′s “Hey Jude” (Past Masters) or 1969′s “Something” (Abbey Road) sound improbably fresh, alive, real. Those born too late to be there the first time around have often wondered what it must have been like to tear off the packaging and hear each Beatles album as a brand-new release, undimmed by the passage of years. Until time travel is invented, this might be the closest we’ll get. A —Simon Vozick-Levinson
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Cool review. I do wanna pick up a couple of these remasters, but not unless they are released digitally (fingers crossed for the iTunes call tomorrow). CDs are a dying medium, and this is Apple Corp’s last grasp at milking that cow.
So… you do know that you can have it both ways, right?
I get most of my music digitally. But my favorite artists are purchased on CD, and then ripped into lossless digital files for playback. The CDs are never used again, but are kept as pristine backup.
I disagree with Crispy. CDs do not sell like they used to, but I think the Beatles remasters will prove that people will buy CDs because a) the music is good; b) the record company gives them something worth their money.
That is a good point. I don’t know if 1 release though can save the entire industry. I personally just don’t like having a bunch of crap lying around if I can get it digitally (and I’m looking at about 500 physical CDs right now that I can’t bring myself to throw out.)
I can’t stand digital downloads. I love CD covers etc. Long live the CD.
Plus you can never resale a download. it is kinda like driving a car off the lot and getting it demolished with no insurance.
agreed. I love the cases, the liners, the lyrics inside. if I lose my downloads, or my computer crashes, I have to start all over. a CD is forever (as long as I don’t sit on it.)
The rumored iTunes product will include all that stuff in digital format. And you should be backing up your data.
Being a younger man (mid-20s), I grew up with CD’s as the primo format. However, the last decade has shown me that for simple listening digital is SO much better (no scratches!), and for tangible lovefests, you need to go vinyl.
iPod in the car, turntable in the house. No CDs necessary.
Also, I am not the same Chris as the Chris just below me, so it is not one person making several different points!
I totally agree… and even for home listening stereos are becoming more and more equipped with iPod hook-ups or stations. CDs are going the way of VHS, and (mark my words!) the DVD is sure to follow.
I agree with Jack about loving CDs. If you were to buy a thousand dollars worth of downloads over the years they are basically worthless. If you have a thousand dollars worth of CDs you could sell them and maybe get back half of your money or more. It is just cool to have the CD booklet with the lyrics and song listings.
For songs that aren’t really important to me, that I just sort of like at the time, a download is great. But for songs I love, I want the CDs. I don’t walk around constantly with earbuds in my ears. I listen to a lot of music in the car on CD. I listen to music on the stereo while I cook or clean, and I can’t move around cooking and cleaning with earbuds that keep falling out or one of the wires gets caught on a drawer. For the music that’s important to me, I want the CDs.
Agreed completely. I’m a fan of the digital download for some stuff (music I like and that I don’t really care if I have the CD’s) but for stuff that I really enjoy (Like The Beatles) The CD is invaluable. I just bought an individual copy of Abbey Road and I’m LOVING it. The pictures and Liner Notes are amazing to look at, and I just love the tangable feeling of ACTUALLY owning a physical copy of the CD and when people ask me if I bought it legitimately or pirated it I can show them the booklet
. I plan on getting all of the albums individually (I don’t have 300 bucks to splurge on the box set). Sgt. Pepper here I come
I can’t wait to have the mono mixes!! I hope we hear about when and if they’ll make more. I listen to my parents old records in mono and they sound fantastic. I’ve been waiting for them to come out digitally.
For all you i-tunes morons out there one wave of a degausser over your precious i-pod and every tune will instantly vanish. Some of old guys still have these little puppies from back in the ancient days of reel to reel tape. To lose my music someone has to either burn down the house or back a truck up to it and load up all the CD’s and vinyl. Digital files are amorphous items that can’t be touched or seen and are gone in a heartbeat with a hard drive crash. CD’s and vinyl are a bit harder to lose. Besides the best i-tunes can do when it comes to CD booklets is to allow you to download it and print it up on the home printer. Wow, now that’s what I call new millennium.
Uh, I have my entire music library on my PC as well as on a backup drive. So it would really be no biggie if my ipod was erased or my system crashed. Leave new media for the rest of us, and we’ll try to stay off your lawn.
oh snap!
You keep harping on about backing up your music, but why should people have to? When you buy a CD, you have the music to keep (scratches notwithstanding – they don’t get damaged if you look after them properly, whereas when you purchase a download you then have to back it up…etc – why is it fair that all this should fall on the consumer who’s parted with their hard-earned money? Downloads are a major rip-off in my opinion – I’m only 19 and I still purchase CDs on a regular basis, as do all the major music fans I know.
Dear Music Critic:
So what the hell rates an A-Plus?
The Rutles?
Got this and the Rock Band game on the way via Amazon, I’ve never spent this much money on one band before, but it’s worth it.
I buy most of my music online now but I’m still a collector at heart and this is the kind of thing that I would want on CD. This looks like something really special you might be able to download the music but it would no fun without the photos, booklet etc.
I can’t wait to hear these, though I plan on replacing my old, 1987 CDs just one or two at a time… And now, the questions I will keep posting until Paul, Ringo, Yoko and Olivia do something about it: WHEN will the Yellow Submarine DVD be reissued, and when will we get Let It Be on DVD???
I’ve heard two of these already, Revolver and Sgt. Pepper.
I guarantee you that for the geezers, you WILL be floored. They didn’t change the stereo mixes, so they are in some cases “hard” stereo mixes the way you remember them…but you will hear things you have *never* heard before that have always been there.
Not even on your precious LPs. But get this: *Somehow* as clear as it is, it still has a “tape-y” sound.
You’ll see. Enjoy
-K
Again, why rehash such old songs. Don’t waste your money, old music not as good as new music.
What world are you living in Big Fat Greek. I admit I like some new music (NOT RAP) but The Beatles are Classic. And in my opinion as a 20 year old, I find myself listening to songs from Bands like the Beatles, or The Eagles, or Joe Cocker, more than I do any thing that could be heard on the radio today. Classics are Classics for a reason and deserved to be listened to by new generations. Get the stick out of your soft end and enjoy the music. Without music like this you wouldn’t have the music you have now. Good Night
The stereo remasters I’ve heard so far are too bright. I have many LPs that blow them away. And let’s face it, we’re still dealing with only 16 bits. It’s another case of what might have been, courtesy of EMI. Why not do something hi-rez, like the Neil Young archives?
A+ for the mono stuff, though. I guess 16 bits is all that’s required for one channel.
Picked up Sgt. Pepper Cd this morning on the way to work. Two things jumped out at me.
First, the CD format is so superior to the MP3. I have been 100% ipod for the last two or three years and got used to 192-340 hi-res mp3 as a “standard” (I don’t mess with lower quality than that EVER) the MP3 can never match the CD for sound quality…maybe you don;t notice what is missing, but it IS missing. In five years when a 10TB drive costs $50 and you can download music lossless, your Mp3s that you paid for will be transistor radio quality. Mp3 is in it’s infant stage..buy the CD and rip it, you will want it later.
Second, They did a great job of remastering this. The instruments come alive, especially percussion and acoustic instruments. Paul’s bass sounds huge! The instruments sound more like individual sounds and not a wall of sound. It also sounds great cranked up…no hiss no tin on the cymbals. Compression was used, but not overused (see Born To Run remaster for overused compression. Can’t wait to hear Abbey Road next.
Is Born To Run a rare Beatles’ song about diarrhea? Never heard that one
Try “apple-lossless” encoder and play your songs on an ipod that is set up to play lossless music- and through half descent headphones. That might solve your problem (meaning in no way to be rude). But this is from the guy who sits in his moms van (parked in the garage) to listen to Pink Floyd albums because they’re the best speakers we have.
He said he didn’t want to use “lossless” because it takes up two much space. Although for the Beatles…
JungleLand2, I speak from personal experience, Abbey Road sounds AMAZING.