New Beatles Box Sets


I've been holding off buying any Beatles cd and I'm hoping these new releases will finally give this material their due in the digital arena.
Can anyone comment on the sound, packaging, etc.
Thanks
greh

Showing 3 responses by slaw3

Well, for what it's worth, these are the American "Capitol" remixes of the original Beatles songs. In many cases, extra reverb and/or delay/echo was added to "Americanize" the songs for airplay here in the USA by Capitol records. The song order was also changed, along with cover art.
The Beatles appropriately disowned these bastard versions of their precious albums, and really, IMHO the mixes do suck. Just listen to "I Feel Fine" for a perfect example of turning a great song with wonderfully articulate guitar and complicated bass/drum work into a reverb and echo soaked mess. "Wall of Sound "indeed!
The sound itself is just OK, nothing great here, unlike the wonderful remastered versions of Number One Hits on the "One" album, or the Yellow Submarine mixes on the incredible DVD (screw the cartoon, just listen to the music!), or "Let it Be" (Naked), which, although the mixes/versions/selections are questionable, actually sounds quite good.
So, bottom line, if you're looking for great remasters of these classics, do NOT buy the Capitol box sets. Go find some original LPs, pays yer dollars, and enjoy them until some brave soul navigates the tangled legal web and undoes the animosity between Paulie and Yoki to produce reference versions of these revered albums.
I truly don't expect to see these remastered in my lifetime. And yeah, whatta colossal bummer.
Hey Zaikesman: I don't disagree, the versions you grew up with ARE the versions for you, and that makes good sense to me. I was lucky enough to have an British friend who sent me the "real" versions whenI was a kid, so I never listened to the American albums (although I bought and still have them all, most still sealed). I did hear the songs on the radio, and always shook my head and wondered why they felt the need to do that. But man, the CDs -all of them - have always suuuuucked. So my advice stands - buy the original British (or American if you must) LPs, and play the heck out them. They still sound great today!
Hi Zaik,
For CDs from a sonic standpoint, I recommend The White Album, the anniversary edition if you can find it; Abbey Road is OK, the Japanese import is better but more $$. Otherwise, the rest are pretty bad sonically.