by fish » Thu Sep 17, 2009 5:18 pm
Warning: In the interest of full disclosure, I am a neurotic Beatles junkie, and am pretty damned far from an "objective" reviewer. I like The Beatles like most people like sunlight and oxygen.
With that warning out of the way, I picked up the mono box set and it's STUNNING. The attention to detail in the packaging is top notch and probably sets the standard for cd packaging. The transfers are very nice sounding and reasonably complete (except for the horrible CRIME of not including Remix 11 of "Tomorrow Never Knows" from the very first UK pressing of REVOLVER on the "Mono Masters" CD...I wasn't kidding about neurotic!)
rant mode: on
I also picked up about half a dozen of the stereo titles and I'm on the fence. Yes, they sound good. Yes, they're better than the 87 cds. Do they sound better than vinyl? NO (by the head of the projects own admission!) Are they better than bootleg "needle-drop" cds from vinyl like Millennium Remasters, Mirror Spock or the Dr. Ebbetts series? In my opinion, no... as good, but not better, and if you're asking people to pony up $$$ it should be MUCH better (Especially $300 for a box set!!).
I realize that not everyone is as hard-core me (but Mal, you *did* ask for my opinion), and for the vast majority of casual Beatle fans the remasters will do nicely, BUT, the simple fact is, that as nice as the remasters sound, they pale in comparision to what could have been achieved with remixing. The catalogue needs to be REMIXED much more than it needed to be *remastered*... Like it or hate it, no one can deny that "LOVE" (which was remixed from the original multi-tracks) sounds incredible. Listen to the *true stereo* (finally, after 40 years!) version of "I Am The Walrus" on "LOVE" then listen to the "remastered" version on Magical Mystery Tour...no comparison, the "LOVE" version blows it out of the water. Listen to "Eleanor Rigby" from the now 10 year old "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" (remixed) then listen to the version from the "Revolver" remaster...again, no compasision. In fact, the Yellow Submarine Songtrack remains the best sounding Beatles cd (LOVE doesn't really count) despite it having been released 10 years ago, and really, when you're talking about the greatest 525 minutes of music in pop history, that's just sad... and it deserves better treatment.
Again, just my opinion, your milage may vary, offer void in Utah, etc, etc.
rant mode: off