Review on what I have so far

[JakeK]

Yesterday, I picked up the new "Help!" as well as "Revolver" and "Please Please Me", in addition to "Rubber Soul" on Saturday to add to what I have.

Here's a review on each album:

Please Please Me:
I never used to like this album, mostly because the recording I used to have of it just sounded too "quick". I don't know if that's the best way to put it, but what I mean is it sounded like there wasn't enough time put into it. Picking up the new CD, I felt like there was clarity, and it could have been recorded last week, but it sounded so new and fresh. Paul's bass just seemed to thump louder than it did on the original CD, and "I Saw Her Standing There" just sounded too amazing

With the Beatles:
This one was the first of the new albums I bought. As with "Please Please Me", the bass was brought up more in the mix, which is a plus. One thing that kinda weirded me out was the harmonica solo in "Little Child", it had stayed to the left for most of the song, but for some reason, it was brought to the right for the solo. This happened on the original stereo LP (The "Captiol Albums" version), but overall the entire album sounded great.

A Hard Day's Night:
This one had some tracks I have never heard in stereo for the first time: "You Can't Do That" and "I Should Have Known Better". "Can't Do That" has always been one of my favorite Beatle songs, but this remastered version made it even better. The songs just sounded cleaner and fresher than they did in the '87 version. That always is a good thing. George and John's Rickenbacker guitars sounded janglier than they did in the '87 mono master. I don't think the remastering teams could have compressed the tracks, could they have?

Beatles for Sale:
Each song sounded fantastic; particularly "I Don't Want to Spoil the Party" and "Honey Don't". I was never able to hear the rhythm guitar in "Honey Don't" or the lead guitar (at least the beginning and end licks) in "Party", but here they are loud and clear. John's tambourine in "Party" is louder, too. In "What You're Doing", I hear John thumping the back of his Gibson J-160E as the song starts.

Help!:
The bass was extremely loud on this one. I read something about Paul saying he was getting tired of the Höfner because it wouldn’t stay in tune or something like that and as a result, turned the bass down. “Ticket to Ride” is an example of low bass (to my ears) and here, it’s fixed, it’s loud and it’s good. “Yesterday” just is too beautiful, sounded better than ever before.

Rubber Soul:
Well, we all know I want to have a new remastered version of my favorite Beatles album. This one (along with “Revolver”) was one of the best. The bass was loud, more syrupy and thick than in the ’87 version. The tambourines, maracas and vocals were all bumped up and the sitar in “Norwegian Wood” just sounded pure and great. The guitar on “What Goes On” always struck me as a Strat or the Gretsch Tennessean. The remastered version has it sounding so clear and clean that I believe it’s a Gretsch.

Revolver:
The bass is much louder, almost as loud as it was in “Sgt. Pepper”. “Here There and Everywhere” and “For No One” have Paul’s vocals sounding so good it will send shivers down your spine. It’s just so pure and evident, almost the way it was supposed to be in 1966.

All in all, each album was fantastically done, and I hope that I will get to hear the rest of these new remasters.

[longhouse]

Thanks Jake. When I free up some shekels I'll begin with Revolver and work backward.

[electrofaro]

Help!:
The bass was extremely loud on this one. I read something about Paul saying he was getting tired of the Höfner because it wouldn’t stay in tune or something like that and as a result, turned the bass down. “Ticket to Ride” is an example of low bass (to my ears) and here, it’s fixed, it’s loud and it’s good. “Yesterday” just is too beautiful, sounded better than ever before.

Based on this I might get this one together with 'Revolver'... it's hard not to buy the stereo box set right from the start, though!

Oh well, my bDay's coming up soon

[lennon211]

The stereo box set is an amazing package. I have to say that this has completely revitalized my enjoyment of the Beatles' music from Please Please Me through Pastmasters. It just doesn't get much better. Also, I'll echo some of Jake's comments: the bass sounds amazingly fuller in these albums, the guitars and their intricacies are much more apparent and the vocals are much purer.

[gregga41]

I think i'll start at the beginning and work up! "Please Please Me" will be my first! Just found an unused gift voucher from my birthday.....PERFECT!!!

[JakeK]

Rather than creating new threads for my new acquisitions, I decided to continue using this thread.

Today, I picked up "The White Album". There are serious improvements on this album. Paul's Jazz Bass tone has always been grinding, but this remaster has it just so growly and snarly that it just sounds too good. Eric Clapton's solo in "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" is as present as an Honor Roll student to his/her favorite class (good analogy here?). As with the other seven "new" releases I own, the guitars, percussion drums and vocals are clearer and the bass (be it Jazz, Höfner or Ric) is up front. "Yer Blues" and "Helter Skelter" are as heavy as a box (two boxes, however you want to say it) of lead! "Julia", "I Will" and "Blackbird" sound so beautiful and melodic, "Honey Pie" and "Don't Pass Me By" sound so lively and fun, and I can finally understand what George is saying in "Long Long Long" and ditto for Ringo in "Good Night". All the songs have been cleanly edited together (good example: '87 master, "Gently Weeps" has a bit of "Bungalow Bill" on it, '09 remaster, "Gently Weeps" starts out nice and clean).

Next album acquistions will be...whenever... (My family says Christmas, but I highly doubt that!)

[FretlessOnly]

I got the mono set, and I've considered the stereo set, but I decided to just get a few of the stereo re-masters. Today I picked up four: A Hard Day's Night (because my wife wanted it), Revolver, Sgt. Pepper... and Abbey Road.

I like the Revolver stereo mainly because it offers Tomorrow Never Knows in stereo, which is very good, and trippier than the mono version. But the mono version is better because it just forms a wall of sound that the stereo doesn't deliver.

I haven't listened to all of these, but I did pop Abbey Road into the car CD player, and I Want You... sounded fantastic. Well, of course, that along with Rain is arguably Macca's finest bass work with the Beatles.

[electrofaro]

I got the mono set, and I've considered the stereo set, but I decided to just get a few of the stereo re-masters.

Same here... I'm glad I got the mono set

I like the Revolver stereo mainly because it offers Tomorrow Never Knows in stereo, which is very good

The only stereo one I have so far - it is an improvement over the 1987 release, but tbh I think it's not that big an improvement... therefore, very happy with my mono set and might get Abbey Road in stereo as I didn't have the 1987 release of it, but I think there's little chance I'll be buying a lot of stereo remasters!

[wj350]

For those of you guys with the Mono sets--are the tracks noticeably better in quality then the Capitol Reissues from a couple years ago--the ones that came with both stereo and mono tracks? Sorry if this has been addressed before, I may have missed it.

I've bought two of the Stereo new release, the White Album and MMT, but haven't given them a good listen yet.

Bill

[FretlessOnly]

Bill: I never got the Capitol sets, mainly because I had everything I really wanted in UK release form. But the Capitol releases weren't remastered then, I believe, so I would expect these new releases to be much better - especially in the bass.

[electrofaro]

For those of you guys with the Mono sets--are the tracks noticeably better in quality then the Capitol Reissues from a couple years ago--the ones that came with both stereo and mono tracks?

Good question, Bill - I know the releases you're refering to, but I only know them from visiting the US, never bought one though as I got the mono versions on Walrus and Pear Records bootlegs. Surely someone at the forums must have one or two to compare them for you?

[akhv]

To me the problem with Capitol boxes was very agressive use of limiters. They weren't promoted as remasters, but there was extreme compression all over the set, making it virtually unlistenable to me. The new mono box sounds much much better. No comparison really.

[JakeK]

Got "Sgt Pepper" and "Magical Mystery Tour" last week. Haven't been accessing the forum as often as I used to. This site and a number of other sites have been rejecting my dial-up connection, so I've been online at wireless hubs in various coffee houses, libraries, etc.

Anyway, on with the review!

The bass on both albums is surprisingly up front, syrupy, punchy and window-rattling. "A Day in the Life" and "Flying" are examples of what I'm talking about. The guitars (Getting Better, Fixing a Hole, Good Morning Good Morning and Baby You're a Rich Man) are so present. On both albums, there is significant presence in the vocals. Two albums from a point in The Beatles' career where they were at their most creative certainly sound like they gave it their all.

[kenindfw]

I tried to do a carefully listen to the AHDN and compare it to the 87 release I have. I liked the 87 release better overall. While I think the vocal sounded slightly better on the new release, the drums sounded muffled (maybe they tried to boost the low end too much). So far I'm not impressed. I have Revolver as well, but I haven't given it a comparision listen yet. I wish they would have re-mixed the tracks rather than just re-master them.

I have the Mono-box set on back order. I hope it proves more worth while than the two CD's I've bought to date.

[JakeK]

Finished out the collection yesterday with "Yellow Submarine", "Abbey Road" and "Past Masters".

Yellow Submarine - Never owned this album before. I have heard "Hey Bulldog" before, and it just sounded cleaner, Paul's bass was very punchy in this one, and I assume it was punchy in the original. "Only a Northern Song" was new to me, especially that it was sped up from the version in the movie, but it was slower than the version in "Anthology". heard "It's All Too Much" for the first time (and not the cut that was in the movie), too, and it sounds like The Beatles meet Hendrix and The Who. No hysterionics like Hendrix and The Who, but the feedback and extended time length. Possibly one of my favorite George tracks. "All Together Now" is a fun little sing-a-long ditty, possibly a good song to play at parties.

Abbey Road - The vocals are more prominent. I can hear John saying "Shoot me" in "Come Together" rather than just "Shoo..!" "Something" sounds so pure and beautiful, and this remastered version has proven that it's my favorite George song. "Here Comes the Sun" COULD have been remixed with centered vocals, but I'm not complaining. All the guitar solos in "The End" were nice and clean, and "Her Majesty" starts off almost instantly, making it easy to be modified between "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Polythene Pam", the way it should have been

Past Masters - Like the rest of the albums, well done, cleaner and making perfect sense that it's just one album, rather than two separate volumes. "Long Tall Sally", "I'm Down" and "Revolution" sound nice and raunchy, while "This Boy", "Yes It Is" and "The Inner Light" sound nice and beautiful. "Rain" sounds slightly faster than on the previous release, but I haven't really listened to both versions back-to-back.

Overall, buying "The Beatles: Remastered" has been a fun experience, and I'm happy to have bought them. I have found myself listening to more Beatles lately, and like The Who and Tom Petty before them, The Beatles now have a chronologically arranged playlist in my iTunes library. (I have every song in order of release date, but if a song has been released a single, it is placed after the corresponding album. Or in the case of "Yellow Submarine", the songs are placed by recorded year).

I have no intentions on buying the Specterrorized (like my little phrase? I didn't think so...) version of "Let It Be". I have "Let It Be...Naked", and while it isn't "Get Back" (I have that bootleg on vinyl), it's (both albums are, really) better than "Let It Be".

If someone with the new "Let It Be" can answer this question for me: does the new "Let It Be" have a red apple on the disc label like the original 1970 release?

Oh! And something happened on Friday that really set me off. I found the Stereo boxset at a New Orleans Barnes and Noble (the same one I bought "The Who Sell Out: 2-disc Deluxe Edition" at), and with the membership my family has had, it would cost the same price to get the boxset (WITH "Let It Be" and the Mini-Docs DVD) as it has been for me to get the 13 albums I have individually. But my mom slapped angry me into reality: I couldn't have bought the boxset, and if I did, it would have had to have been a Christmas present, and she and I agreed I couldn't have waited.