The Beatles Remastered Review Round-Up

It’s the 60′s all over again! The Beatles have topped the charts this week with the remastered-reissue of their earlier albums and and the verdict is in — The Fab Four are still the Fabulous Four. After nearly 40 years since their breakup, The Beatles still have fans and critics alike swooning over them. Yet the group hasn’t stopped evolving. With a new generation, they needed a new or rather improved sound which is why The Beatles Remastered was exactly what we needed to restore the “Beatlemaniac” glory.

Check out what people are saying about The Beatles Remastered…

On the sound and performances of reissue:

• “In the case of ‘Abbey Road,’ a ripped version restores shape to the sounds and a distinctiveness to the notes being played. In the computer and the car, ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ failed to recapture the expansiveness of the vinyl and, until it was played on a stereo, sounded no different than the earlier CD. [Livedaily]
• “On the lovely ‘Blackbird,’ not only can you hear Paul’s foot tapping out the steady 4/4 beat, but the type of shoe he’s wearing is also apparent. (Lightweight leather with a thin sole was my guess, but I was stumped by the color. I would never have guessed the red and yellow oxfords with, yes, thin soles I later saw Paul sporting in the accompanying QuickTime movie.) His Rickenbacker bass, especially from ‘Revolver’ on, swoops and thumps with added authority on these discs.” [CSMonitor]
• “With all the fancy gloss of the 21st century filling out the technical details of the songs, what you get in return is a fuller, richer sound that the original pressing over 40 years ago couldn’t deliver. It fills your head with more of what The Beatles had already been doing for the past four records, with a few heavy gems that will forever be part of their best recordings. Help! by no means was at the top of their game, but still it shouldn’t be over looked.” [Consequence of sound]

The improvements :

• “Now, The Beatles are Fab again, with their classic albums sounding sprightly and emancipated. The wide and radical remastering approach, executed in London’s famed Abbey Road Studios, has created a warmer, clearer and more holistic, multidimensional sound. The vocals are more engaging, the guitars keener and the cymbals sexier, while McCartney’s melodic bass is raunchier.” [MoneyWeb]
• “… true blue Beatles fans and collectors will find the improved sonics, sparkling-clean tracks, and enhanced separation achieved by the Abbey Road studio engineers and assorted experts (who spent the past four years poring over the original tapes) on these new CDs well worth the investment . . . the overall sound is very clear and virtually distortion-free. The lads’ lead vocals are somewhat enhanced and background voices sound less blended together, so it’s easier to single out the individual Beatles singing harmonies. Formerly buried acoustic guitars suddenly are more present, and sound percussive, woody, and more resonant. Electric guitars seem to ring out more viscerally.” [CSMonitor]
• “There’s no denying improvements abound throughout the 12 albums and the two-CD collection ‘Past Masters.’ In general, the new versions have rounded out the brittleness that plagued albums such as ‘Rubber Soul,’ improved the sonic definition on the later works (‘Sgt. Pepper, ‘Abbey Road’), and reminded us of how pronounced the stereo separation was–vocals on one side, everything else on the other–on the earliest records (‘For Sale,’ ‘With the Beatles,’ ‘A Hard Day’s Night’).” [Livedaily]

Overall the response to the remastered issues of the early albums seem to be positive and really what more can you say when it comes to The Beatles?

Does this make you want to get a copy of two?