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2010 15 Mar

With The Beatles (1963) Remastered

With The Beatles is definitely not my favorite Beatles album, in fact it is likely their least good non Yellow Submarine album. But that is not to say I don’t love hearing this early classic in it’s 2009 remastered form nor is it to imply that it does not have any memorable tracks on it because that is definitely not the case.

I do think that when looking only at the eight original songs on the record, it is arguably the least good selection of original songs The Beatles ever released on an LP (the very underrated Beatles For Sale has a much better selection of 8 originals) on the other hand, the covers on this album are quite nice (better than the covers on Beatles For Sale, which was their fourth album.)

My most favorite Beatles originals to listen to on the With The Beatles Remastered CDs are the first 3 songs: “It Won’t Be Long,” “All I’ve Got To Do,” and “All My Loving.” In particular I’ve been enjoying track number two, “All I’ve Got To Do” in the remastered mono. It sounds delicious.

Another original that has really been making an impression on me is track #9, “Hold Me Tight.” Paul wrote and sang this song and he’s been very dismissive of it. 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 an extremely cheesy sickly sweet ballad and while I feel I shouldn’t like it, I do anyway. The record’s final track, “Money” is an excellent way to end the record. When I listen closely to the remastered mono version I realize that the song rocks much harder than I ever realized. It’s a great reminder of how hard The Beatles could rock the house even in 1963.

For most of the CDs I do prefer the The Beatles Stereo Box Set 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 particular album sounds better in mono than in stereo.

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Tags: 1963, British Invasion, Classic Rock, Rock, The Beatles

2010 13 Mar

The Beatles Remastered Stereo Box Set

no comment Posted by ezwriter

The Beatles are definitely not a “greatest hits” kind of band. You can’t purchase just Beatles 1 and be done with the Fab Four. I believe most of their best tracks were not their number one hits but were their more experimental recordings such as “Tomorrow Never Knows.”

If you really want to understand The Beatles incredibly influential music you have to listen to their LPs as a whole instead of just checking out the big hits. I believe that the Fab Four recorded quite a few of the best rock albums of all time and even their not so fantastic albums (like Beatles for Sale) have some fantastic tracks.

This is why I believe it’s such a fantastic idea to Buy The Remastered Beatles Stereo Box Set. The box includes every album (and every non-album song with the Past Masters double CD set) that The Beatles released in the 1960s.

It contains pretty much all of their officially released recordings except for The Anthologies and the Live at the BBC set. I think this makes sense because those releases aren’t a part of the band’s “official catalog”. They are sort of like the “special features” on a DVD while the original releases are the main movie.

There are some more of their releases that are not included in the box set, one of them being the 1999 release of a CD titled Yellow Submarine Songtrack that is completely different from the 1969 Yellow Submarine LP. It is actually far better in my opinion and definitely worth a listen because of it’s alternate mixes (it’s not just remastered, it’s remixed.) Love and Let It Be… Naked are also not included.

Along with The Beatles Stereo Box Set, I also highly recommend that you Buy The Beatles in Mono Box Set which features the original mono mixes for all of The Beatles songs up through Yellow Submarine. It may be hard to understand today, but when they were mixing their recordings they thought the mono version to be of much more importance than the stereo mixes up until about 1968.