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Posts Tagged ‘The Beatles’

The Beatles Stereo Box Set (Please Please Me + The White Album)

The Beatles second UK LP (With The Beatles) is not among my favorite Beatles albums, in fact it’s likely their least great non Yellow Submarine studio album. But that’s not to imply I don’t enjoy hearing this early classic in it’s 2009 glorious remastered format nor is it to say that With The Beatles does not have any fine tunes on it because because I definitely do and it definitely does.

But I do believe that when considering just the eight Beatles originals on the LP, it’s likely the least inspiring collection of original compositions John, Paul, George, & Ringo ever put out on an LP (the underrated Beatles For Sale (1964) has a far better collection of 8 originals in my opinion) on the other hand, the covers on With The Beatles are quite good (better than the six covers on Beatles For Sale, which was their fourth album.)

My favorite originals to listen to on the With The Beatles Remastered CDs are the first three tracks. Particularly, I’ve been enjoying song number two, “All I’ve Got To Do” in the remastered mono.

Another original track that has really been growing on me a bit is song #9, “Hold Me Tight.” Paul McCartney wrote and sang lead vocals on this song and he’s dismissed it as beign a “work song”. And while the song is a bit sloppy sounding, I think it is a good time.

“Till There Was You” is my favorite cover on the album. It is a very cheesy sickly sweet ballad but I think in some strange way it works because of that. The album closer, “Money” is an excellent way to end the record. When I listen closely to the remastered mono version I actually hear the song as much more unhinged than I realized. It rocks pretty darn hard.

For most of the CDs I do prefer the stereo mixes(especially with the later albums which are my favorite, anyway) when it comes to the 2009 Beatles remasters but I do think that this album sounds better in mono.

The Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set

Beatles For Sale (1964) is a frequently dismissed Beatles album (as overlooked as any Beatles album can be anyway.) I think that is a real shame because while it’s undoubtedly not among The Beatles best records, it still has some good qualities and I do believe it is worth taking a good listen to.

Particularly I think the 8 original Lennon/McCartney songs on the record are very good (even if not quite as good as the originals on A Hard Day’s Night and Help!) What really stands out about these eight originals is that they have a cool cohesive feeling with them. I think these songs would work well as an EP.

The album really starts off great with John’s “No Reply,” “I’m A Loser,” & “Baby’s In Black.” These are 3 good tunes and they all have a introspective dark mood that ties them together wonderfully.

I am not a huge fan of the covers on Beatles For Sale, unfortunately. Even more sadly is that the covers make up nearly half of the record (six of the fourteen songs are covers.) The only covers that I have any patience for are Buddy Holly’s “Words of Love” and Chuck Berry’s “Rock and Roll Music” However even those two are not nearly as good as the Lennon/McCartney originals.

The most popular of those Lennon and McCartney originals on this LP is definitely “Eight Days A Week” which is a song that both Lennon and McCartney said negative things about (they wrote it together) and the band never played it live. However despite that, it’s a good tune. No, it is not among their greatest songs, but it is catchy and the fade-in is extremely cool.

All of the tracks on this album (covers and originals) sound way better on the new remastered CDs than they did on the old CDs. I highly recommend that you buy The Beatles Stereo  CD Box Set and The Beatles in Mono CD Box Set and give both the stereo and mono remastered versions of the album a good listen before you go about your business. 

I’m definitely not claiming that Beatles For Sale Remastered is destined to be your new favorite album, but I do believe you will find that is much better than it’s reputation says it is.

Quite a few folks really believe that vinyl is the best way to enjoy an album. They believe that there is just a certain magic to watching the record rotate and knowing that the wonderful sound you’re listening to is coming from a needle instead of a bunch of ones and zeroes like with CDs.

It is this “magic feeling” (to quote “You Never Give Me Your Money” that has fans of The Beatles very excited about the strong possibility of The Beatles 2009 remasters (which have sold extremely well on CD) making their way onto vinyl LPs in 2010. Although as of this writing no date for release has been set, it is believed that Apple Corps. is working on a Vinyl record release of The Beatles remastered stereo albums but there’s no indication that the mono remasters will also be released on vinyl.

The Beatles vinyl records that are available at the moment were made using the old 1987 digital remasters so these 2010 vinyl records should be as improved in sound quality as the new CDs are when compared to the old discs.

Like many other Beatles fans I’m definitely planning on ordering The Beatles Remasters Vinyl LP Box Set as soon as it is available to buy (as I’m sure it’ll sell out fast) even though I have already purchased all of these 2009 remasters on CD (and on The Beatles USB.)

According to the interviews that I have seen, the new Beatles vinyl LPs will be available individually and as a part of a box set (just like The Beatles remastered stereo CDs.) The current rumored date for release is March 16, 2010 but there’s a good possibility that won’t end up being the actual release date.

While you’re waiting for the vinyl LPs I strongly recommend that you buy The Beatles Remastered Stereo CD Box Set and The Beatles Remastered Mono CD Box Set. They both sound incredible. I usually end up listening to stereo versions more often (as I just prefer hearing music in stereo more than music in mono, in general) but the mono CDs are interesting too.

The Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set

The Beatles classic albums were first digitally remastered for CD back in the late 80s at that time digital mastering was a relatively new art and since then a lot has been figured out about how to master more effectively but most important is the incredible rate in technological advance over the past 20 years.

All of the leaps forward in technology and all of the information learned on how to best make digital masters have been put to use with the Beatles remasters of 2009. On September 9, 2009 The Beatles released both The Beatles Stereo Box Set and The Beatles in Mono. And both remastered box sets sound great. If you have not yet heard them then I recommend that you hear The Beatles remastered as soon as possible.

Which kind of remastered Beatles should a fan purchase? Well for this guy the answer was, without a doubt, “all of them” but if you can only have you’ll probably want to go with the Beatles in Stereo since it includes all thirteen of their UK studio albums and most listeners do like the stereo mixes more than the mono mixes.

The Beatles Mono Box Set is more for hardcore Beatles fanatics who want to listen for every single difference between the mono and stereo mixes (and in some cases they are quite different) and for those who want to hear the lads from Liverpool how they originally listened to them (this, of course, applies to the original fans who were there for The Beatles in person in the 60s.)

I ordered both the stereo and mono box sets and if you have the cash, you should do the same. They both have their positives and negatives and in my opinion they are both legitimate versions of The Beatles amazing discography.

While you’re at it, you may want to order The Beatles Rock Band game too, it’s a ton of fun.

Please Please Me & The White Album Box Set Packaging

It’s the the most ancient Beatles argument: “John Lennon or Paul McCartney” Which one was most essential to The Beatles music? It’s my belief as a huge Beatles fanatic that the true answer is “both!” It may sound like a cop-out but I actually think it’s true.

While I’m not one of those people that likes to talk about how awful Lennon & McCartney were during their solo careers (because I don’t think that’s true at all) I do think it’s clear that they never reached the same level on their own as they did together with The Beatles I think that’s pretty good proof that there was something special about their partnership that allowed their work together to to reach a level that has rarely been reached by other songwriters.

A lot of The Beatles greatest work wasn’t the tunes that they wrote on their own but were the songs that they worked on together. Most of their early hits such as “Please Please Me” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” were written together and some of their best work such as “We Can Work It Out” were actually combinations of different bits that John & Paul wrote separately which were then added together to make a whole song.

And even when a song was mostly written by one or the other such as in the cases of “Hey Jude” and “Dear Prudence” there was still some great input by the other one.

Lennon would sometimes offer helpful advice on lyrics to McCartney. John told Paul to keep a lyric in the song “Hey Jude” that Paul felt wasn’t clear enough. With “Getting Better” John added the “it couldn’t get much worse” bit which helped to add a bit of weight to the positive lyrics of the rest of the song.

McCartney added some incredible bass guitar parts to John’s songs such as “Dear Prudence,” “Rain,” & “Come Together.” Without the great bass parts on these songs, they’d be nowhere near as great!

The big point is that both John & Paul were essential to making The Beatles LPs so great.

Please Please Me Packaging

The Beatles In Mono Box Set includes The Beatles first ten albums in their original mono mixes along with the “Mono Masters” 2 CD compilation which includes the original mono mixes for all of their non-album songs that were mixed in mono.

The Beatles Mono CD Box Set is a real “revelation” in some cases. A lot of the band’s earlier songs really sound much~better in mono than they do in stereo because they were originally mixed in mono and the stereo mixes were often done as an “afterthought” (because stereo wasn’t taken very seriously at the time.) Many of The Beatles stereo mixes are totally screwed up by the standards of today because they pan everything to one side or the other which can be unsettling to listen to (especially when listening on headphones.)

It’s fantastic to be able to hear tunes like “Eleanor Rigby” without the extreme panning that mars the stereo mixes of these songs.

Panning is not the only differences between the mono & stero mixes. In some cases there are actually different takes and different effects used! And in many more cases different instruments/parts are highlighted in the mono mix vs. the stereo mix.

A good example of a different mix in mono vs. stereo is “Helter Skelter” because it’s almost a full minute shorter in mono than in stereo and it doesn’t include the “blisters on my fingers” scream at the end.

“I’m Only Sleeping” is a another good example of mixing differences between the two versions beyond simple panning differences. There is more backwards guitar in the mono mix of the song than in the stereo version.

Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Mono Masters Compilation is that it includes four previously unreleased mixes (“Hey Bulldog,” “All Together Now,” “It’s All Too Much,” and “Only a Northern Song.”) These four songs were never released in mono (in any format) before because when the Yellow Submarine soundtrack album was originally released in ‘69 it was only for sale in stereo (which is why the album as a whole is not included in the mono box, the George Martin instrumentals were never mixed in mono) so these mono mixes were shelved in Abbey Road Studios for 40 years before finally being heard in 2009.

Beatles Stereo Box Set

Now that I have been listening to The Beatles Stereo CD Box Set for almost a full seven days I think it’s time to do a review of the set as a whole. Now that I’ve had a chance to hear all of the remastered Beatles albums I can say without any doubt that they sound much better than the old Beatles CDs.

It’s amazing how much more clear these new discs sound in comparison to the old CDs. I hear lots of details in these songs that I have never heard before! It’s really like rediscovering The Beatles timeless music all over again as I go through each of the 14 albums in The Beatles In Stereo CD Box Set.

There’s already been a lot of debate among fans of the band over what sounds better; The the mono or the stereo? This debate is raging of course because along with this stereo box set The Beatles Mono Box Set was also released on September 9th.

I think the stereo CDs sound much better for the later CDs because they allow for greater clarity which is essential considering how complex many of these later mixes are. It’s harder to choose which is better with the first five or six albums. I still like the clarity of the stereo mixes even with the earlier albums, but it is true that the really wide panning can be a bit distracting so I think there’s a good case for the more “powerful” sounding mono mixes too!

In short, I’m very glad that I bought both box sets and I really think they are both essential for serious Beatles fans. After all the mono mixes were how the albums were originally intended to be heard so they have great historical value, but the stereo mixes sound really really good, so you have to have those too.

Obviously the main reason I love this box set is how great The Beatles music sounds in remastered stereo but I also should give a “shout out” to the really great packaging.

Arguably the most famous band on the scene, The Beatles are set to re-release a vast amount of their music backlog accompanied by a bran new computer game. The new video game which is entitled, ‘The Beatles: Rockband” which is released on Wednesday 9th September.
On the game you can see visual simulations of the band performing some of their most famous tracks at some of the most popular venues from around the country. This coincides perfectly with their record label EMI’s scheduled release of 14 of their new digitally enhanced albums which will available in early 2010. Also, from October 19th people who have bought the video game will be able to download the great Abbey Road album either through their XBOX or Playstation 3 for roughly £10. Or alternatively, you can download them individually for about 99p each. This is part of the master plan to get the Beatles back on the scene and get their music re-released to today’s modern generation. There is no doubt that these new CD’s will sell like hotcakes in the shops and I bet EMI are licking their lips!
I have been a fan of the Beatles for as long as I can remember. I am very intrigued to hear how they managed to re-master their tracks so well. I do hope they have not laid digital pianos over their grand pianos or added a hoard of electric guitars to replace the older sound. Plans on how to get the Beatles’ back catalogue implemented into the digital world has been widely discussed between all the parties involved. The various record companies involved will also be offering the most famous album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for sale in November which is definetly going to be huge with fans from all over the world!
You can watch game play trailers and get more information at The Beatles: Rock Band official website. By the time you read this the game should be out! I will definetly be buying this video game!

If there is a Beatles fan among your family (yourself included!) you must circle September 9th on a calander because that’s the day three incredible Beatles related gifts are being released. The Beatles Stereo Box Set, The Beatles Mono Box Set, and Beatles Rock Band. In this article I’ll go over what makes each of these products such a good gift.

The Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set

Every song The Beatles recorded and released from 1962 through ‘70 in very high quality stereo. That’s all thirteen UK albums from 1962’s debut Please Please Me through ’70’s Let It Be. And yes this is a great gift even if the Beatlemaniac in question already owns all of their albums on compact disc. Why? Because these CDs sound far better than the older discs.

More of the sound of the original analog master tapes was captured with these CDs in comparison with the old Beatles CDs. In fact many claim that these new CDs sound better than the original vinyl records.

The Remastered Beatles Mono Box Set

This is the perfect gift for really serious Beatles fans because this is what all of the real “purists” have been waiting for: Finally, the original mono mixes from the 1960s are on CD. This is the first time that the Beatles albums will be heard as they were originally intended to be heard by many Beatles fans!

Each of the band’s first 10 albums was mixed in mono and the band actually spent far more time and energy working in mono than they did in stereo. The reason for that is that in the 1960s stereo was still a new concept and was thought to be something of a “fad.” Most of their fans listened to mono at that time so it only made sense for them to concentrate on the mono mixes.

The Beatles Rock Band Game

This is a great gift for any Beatles fan who also enjoys playing video games. But I must say that you don’t have to be a gamer to like playing Rock Band. I hate games in general but I love playing Rock Band.

If you have younger “gamers” in your family who don’t yet know or appreciate The Beatles music this may be a great way to get them into it.

9/9/9 is the day that Beatles fans have been waiting for. On that day three fantastic “goodies” will be available for the very first time. Many Beatles fans (like myself) have already pre-ordered all three of these items online and are only waiting for them to be shipped!

#1 The Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set

This awesome box set includes every song The Beatles originally released from 1962 through 1970 in remastered stereo sound quality.

The new remastering will allow listeners to hear The Beatles timeless music with new clarity and detail. The CDs will also be somewhat louder than the 1987 CD versions which have been out for the last 22 years.

#2 The Beatles Mono CD Box Set

The first 10 Beatles albums in their original mono mixes. Most of these original mono mixes have actually never been released on CD before. Many Beatles purists consider the original mono mixes to be the “true” Beatles mixes because these were the mixes that The Beatles originally intended their fans to hear.

Incredibly, the mono mix of The White Album has never been officially released in the US. Not even on LP or tape! Why? This is because when The White Album was released in 1968 mono mixes were no longer a part of the US music scene, meanwhile both the stereo mix and the mono mix were released in the UK.

#3 The Beatles Rock Band Game

Rock Band is the ultimate music video game and The Beatles Rock Band will be the ultimate version of the game. It will include over 40 Beatles songs which can be sung, drummed, and rocked. Entire albums will also be available for download. 1969’s Abbey Road will be the very first Beatles album available for download.

The Beatles Rock Band will be the first version of the game that includes harmony singing. Three different players can sing at one time which lets your friends and you really sing the harmonies of the greatest band of all time.