The Beatles remastered part 1

I'm looking through you
Where did you go?
I thought I knew you
What did I know?
You don't look different
but you have changed.
I'm looking through you
You're not the same.

I've had the chance to listen (using a nice set of noise cancelling Bose headphones) to most of the Beatles remastered (stereo) releases and here are some early thoughts.

If you're a fan and familiar with the songs, these releases will be a delight. There is many new sounds to hear for the first time. If you are new to the Beatles, they've never sounded better (overall. There are exceptions).

Please Please Me

The first song you are greeted with is "I Saw Her Standing There", and the first thing you will say is "The Beatles never had that much bass" (one gets the feeling Sir Paul has been standing over the new engineers saying "Boost the bass!").

The Beatles are loud again.

The separation may bug newer listeners, as the "stereo" here is the same kind that used to show up in original "simulated" stereo Capital record vinyl releases of the early to mid 60's. The rhythm section firmly tucked into the left channel, vocals in the right (which is probably a reflection of the source recordings. Two songs, "Love Me Do" and "P.S. I Love You" show up here in mono, even on the stereo CD).

Once you attune yourself to the new low end, you notice that the high end has not suffered, but is cleaner and crisper than it's even been.

Songs that have always been flat panels, to be "viewed" from the outside, are now 3d. You can now wander around inside the songs, inspecting its parts as never before possible.

No big surprises here though, the songs don't sound wildly different from the originals…yet something is subtly different.

With the Beatles

Same separation here as on "Please Please Me", but are some stand outs.

"You Really Got a Hold on Me" - the new clarity here is wonderful.
"Money (That's What I Want) - with Lennon here in centre channel and the overall mix more balanced, this song thumps.

A Hard Day's Night

The overall production is now more balanced, as these songs seem to have made with stereo in mind.

Beatle records have always been not just great songs, but those little moments within the song, be it an unexpected tambourine to a random voice, and now instruments and vocals you always knew were there are now all polished up and shiny for you to inspect.

Turn this CD up and enjoy the thunder, it's a close to Beatlemania as you're going to get.

Beatles for Sale

This CD is a dramatic improvement over the muddy 80's CD version. It's also one of the Beatles more reverb crazy releases, and one of their most depressing.

The new stereo lightens up the mood a bit, and all the janglly guitars sparkle (listen to "Honey Don't", and note the chord sustain of the guitar in the right channel during the verse. If that was there, I'd never heard it before).

Unfortunately, no amount of restoration can save "Mr. Moonlight", one of the top 5 worst Beatle songs in existence.

Crank up the volume and marvel at "Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey" and "Eight Days a Week".

Help!

The title song is still the murky mess it always was, yet cleaner at the same time.

It's on the CD we get the first of potentially Lucas sized revisions (I have a lurking suspicion of the use of Autotune in the earlier CDs.

As well, how many mistakes have been quietly removed? Certainly "Paperback Writer" has be "corrected", and possibly "Ticket to Ride" as well).

"You've Got to Hide your Love Away" is lower pitched than the 80's version, but also thankfully much brighter. It may be closer to the original recording, but sounds very different to my ears.

Again, other than that, the other songs are all sparkly but not too different from earlier versions. "Another Girl" and "You Going to Lose That Girl" retain their 'recorded under the highway' sound.

Rubber Soul

This album is notorious for the brutal separation of mid 60's stereo recordings. It seems here they have softened it, the song "What Goes On" being the worse offender, while retaining Ringo in the left it sounds more smoothed out.

One wishes they had restored the false start to "I'm Looking Through You"…

Yet again, fans of janglly guitars will be in heaven, with "If I Needed Someone" a fave of mine.

Revolver

The issue of what the original intent of the Beatles was on any given recording comes up here again:

"Eleanor Rigby" - the voices are pushed to the front now?

The new production of "Got to Get You into My Life" makes the horns jump, and listen for the vocal hums in the right channel.

"Tomorrow Never Knows" suffers here, as the production is now too clear and the sound effects no longer rise and fall out of the background, but come in and out much like the samples they are.

Part II coming...