Today the Beatles Remastered Cds and Beatles ROCK BAND were released.
Okay, just went to best buy. They had Rock Band set up and most of the employees were dressed in Sgt Peppers outfits. Cheaply made, but nice fun. Rock Band looks awesome! I was offered to play, but declined. I had the kid with me after all. but I watched a few others play. I cannot wait to sing and play the drums on those songs!
I picked up the following remastered CDs: Sgt Peppers, Let it Be, Abbey Road, White Album and Please Please Me. I'll get the others when I can afford it. Perhaps after this weekend? I did just spend my pittsburgh money on these after all. I was feeling guilty about that, but after reviewing what I got, TOTALLY WORTH IT! read on.
My initial reaction:
I first listened to Please Please me on the way home. These are the CDs I've been waiting all this time for. I kept putting off and putting off buying all these records because I knew one day they'd release them in stereo and remastered with better artwork. (the artwork for the Abby road and Let it be Cds was crap! Please Please me's disc looks like what the center part of the old record looked like. the booklet alone is worth the price of admission. Its a gatefold paper Cd holder, and in one slot is the CD, the other, the expanded lyric booklet. TONS of pics, lots of pages of notes, outtake pics of proper photos we've all seen before, etc. Listening to LOVE ME DO, I was totally blown away by the sound. The harmonica at times was squeaking in ways I never heard before. You could totally hear it. In the old MONO Cds and records, the sound of all the beatles albums is kinda muffled. For example, just listneed to "BECAUSE" and the voices... my god, the voices! You can easily pick out each one, and it sounds as if it were recorded yesterday. Literally yesterday. And believe me, I'm a hardcore stickler when it comes to these sorts of things. When it says REMASTERED, it means it. Digitally enhanced, etc.
I just listened to OH DARLING! and nearly cried. the sound is unreal. You can hear McCartney after each line trail off and a little click of him taking a breath or spittle in his mouth or lungs. Its crystal, crystal, crystal clear.
These things ALONE make these CDs great. Only complaint I have is that each CD right now comes with a "mini documentary" and its about 5 minutes. Pretty standard. Samples audio tracks from the album, previous interviews with the fab four and george martin. Also some great studio chatter I've never heard in any of the anthologies or bootlegs that I know of. sometimes, you get outtakes of songs. A couple times when they mess up, you hear them swear. Suprised they kept that in. But my complaint that its only 5 minutes long each. I would rather have seen all of them strung together as a bonus DVD or something instead of having to put each disc in and wait for it to load to see 5 minutes worth of footage and audio. But whatever. its a limited thing and its free to begin with. Plus, I guess everything you can say about these albums has been said before myrids of times so I will forgive that. You could easily make a DVD about the making of each album anyway, so whatever.
What shines is the sound and the packaging. Take the SGT PEPPERS album. Included are the lyrics, outtakes of the session photos for the cover (I've only seen one outtake of that iconic photo and it was small and in black and white. Here, we get 10 different possibilities of what MIGHT have been the album cover. And remember that small thing where it listed the characters on the cover and who they are? Well, its blown up into a two page thing now, and its much easier to see. plus lyrics, tons of liner notes. AND-a page that features the old cut outs from the lp version. (old skoolers will know what I am talking about there)
The photos themselves have been remastered digitally. Take the cover to abbey road, which always had looked like a painting, or a very flat photograph with grainy feel. It looks like a photo taken yesterday, with complete depth of field and the colors are way more vibrant. Compare to the older one and I dare you to tell me the difference. Also in Abbey Road are photos from the last photo session of the Beatles that I've NEVER seen before. Never. So, there. That speaks for itself. And I've seen a crapton of photos of these guys.
All in all, I am EXTREMELY pleased with these. I cannot wait to get the rest of them. And redissect the music again, to pick up on the minut things I missed all these years in this new mix. Goddamn these are awesome!
So, thats my review. GO GET THESE DISCS!!!!!!!!!!!!
T
(EDIT) I will add that these discs were made for hardcore fans of music, good sounding mixes and Beatles Fanatics. the casual fan might not care about what studio they were in when such and such was recorded, etc. Nor will they likely care about a good mix. But for those hardcores, this is definately for you.
5 comments:
I think I'll have to get "Rubber Soul" and "Magical Mystery Tour".
trust me, after you hear the quality and see the packaging, you'll want them all. Guaranteed.
listening to the white album. Interesting to note how much different the bass track sounds. You can actually hear him pick the notes. Like in IM SO TIRED, where it was barely heard before. you can now hear the strungs practically rub and vibrate. Same with OB-LA-DI-OB-LA-DA. the backing track of BLACKBIRD isntead of a constant thumping is now a nock and a pat. Nock, pat, knock, pat, knock, pat. WHY DONT WE DO IT IN THE ROAD, the claps in the beginning are echoing. and thankfully on JULIA, lennon's voice sounds a bit pumped up. Beautiful sound!
God these are great!
Heya.
I think I never commented here but here goes:
If I wanted to hear the Beatles as their "heaviest" or "roughest" (and I don't mean as they were fat or something :D ) what would be the album you'd recommend. I have heard the hits and stuff like that but I'm looking for an album with least radio hits and where the sound wouldn't be that cheerio happy-go-lucky yellow submarine stuff.
That would be the Beatles album I'd buy.
^and no, this is no joke. I wanna know and possibly get that album
I'd recommend ABBEY ROAD. The heaviest song they ever did was "I want you, she's so heavy." Its on there. While it does a fair share of the happy, bubbly stuff as well. The last half of the album is a medley and its greatness. Another recommendation is the WHITE ALBUM. Its got some dark stuff on it. Like, HAPPINESS IS A WARM GUN. Alot of odd things and bits of songs. A "kitchen sink" album if you like.
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