For Christmas my siblings gave me a very thoughtful gift: a couple of the remastered Beatles albums. As a fan of the Beatles, I had been ogling these remastered albums since they came out last September but had not yet bought them.
Opening the discs I thought, "Will these remastered, re-released albums be a brand new experience? Will it be Beatles 6.0? Will I 'rediscover' the Beatles? Will they save rock and roll, bring world peace, and restore my hair loss?"
Now for the review. I received two choice albums: Revolver and Rubber Soul. Spinning the discs was intriguing indeed. In comparing the remasters to the original CDs, I noticed both in headphones and on stereo system that the newest incarnations were more crisp and had deeper bass. However, differences were definitely more apparent as I played the tracks on nicer stereo equipment with a woofer.
Ultimately this is not "new Beatles." It's probably not worth the money to most people to replace their whole Beatles catalog. I would recommend the remastered CDs to hard-core fans, fans who would like better quality in their favorite albums, or people who are perhaps thinking of getting into the Beatles (instead of getting the old recordings just get the new ones).
I have only reviewed the stereo mixes. There are also mono mixes. The Beatles' producer once said, "You've never really heard Sgt Pepper until you've heard it in mono." Sadly these mono mixes are only available in a boxed set - for $200 plus. No thanks. I'm sure they'll eventually come out as single CDs.
All in all it has been a delight to digest the remastered albums. Thanks to my sister and bro for the tracks!
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