I'm on an insane deadline and under tremendous stress, so I'll make this quick (I only allowed myself fifteen seconds to provide a picture, which is why the above is so crude). But I had to mention 1) that (through various Jack Sparrow-type channels) I've acquired both the Stereo Box and the Mono Box in their entirety (as lossless .FLAC files that I converted to variable-bitrate .mp3s) and 2) that it's an explosive, astonishing, incredible experience to listen to all of it. My cat seems to be giving me a look that says, "Enough with the damn Beatles!" after two solid days of nothing but.
I could go on and on, but suffice it to say that the whole thing is superb beyond words; that the mono mixes (which I'd, mostly, never heard before, and which are considered the "true" mixes, since the Beatles and George Martin were directly involved in a way that wasn't true for the subsequent stereo versions) sound absolutely incredible, and that everyone who can afford it (including myself, later) should go buy this stuff. John Lennon said that you "haven't really heard the 'White Album' until you've heard it in mono," and, after having my socks blown off by "Helter Skelter" (which lacks the "blisters on my fingers" coda in its original mono rendition) I'd be inclined to agree. At the other end of the scale, the first-ever stereo discs of the first four albums (Please Please Me, With The Beatles, Beatles For Sale, A Hard Day's Night) are, well, I'm running out of superlatives, but those 1987 versions were such muddy, thin fare by comparison to what they've done here.
What's particularly amazing is this: when you talk about mono vinyl to cassettes to old 1980s CDs to modern digital remasters, it's like talking about VHS to DVD to Blu-Ray -- it's a similar progression -- except that, with movies, we all remember going to the theater and seeing the stuff "for real." With recorded music, there's no equivalent, unless you were one of the lucky dozen or so people who were actually in the room at Abbey Road studios when these tracks were first recorded. My point is, nobody has ever heard this before. It simply wasn't physically possible. The entire Beatles legacy is based on vinyl recordings that are totally inferior to the 1987 CDs, which are equally inferior to these remasters. I don't even know how to think about that. Anyway, it's amazing what's been given to us by those four; a gift, as we know, equal to the love they took. Yeah, yeah, yeah!
18 comments:
I must admit to being completely sucked into the vortex of hype surrounding their Rock Band: Beatles release. This review gets me equally excited for the music alone, and I've never been the hugest Beatles fan. I have much more respect for them than outright love, but I must admit that all this news (and the Zemeckis 3d Submarine) has got me looking at them with new eyes. And ears.
Only 15 seconds, Jordan? Have you ever thought about pimping yourself out as the resident Horrorthon avatar caricaturist? I'd pay good money for a Jordan original avatar of me. And make it my Facebook pic, with full credit and links...interested?
As always, I love reading what you have to say (about anything, really)...
I mean, you NAILED Paul. Absoutely nailed him.
At an average of 3.7 seconds per Beatle, this is totally impressive.
I love the doodle! Damnit, I was hoping you would sayu something like, "Don't bother, it's not much of an improvement..." Sigh, I need to start saving for the $300 price tag on these things. Excellent review.
Jordan that doodle is glorious and/or triumphant. You captured the essence and personality of all four and that's no easy task.
I'm all about hating the Beatles right now. You heard me - fuck those guys. Velvet Underground baby.
Seriously - John, Paul & Ringo = Ok, that's one thing. But how on shit did you capture George? The complicated, deep in thought but all around nice guy Beatle? I promised myself I wouldn't fawn all over you (like we all have, like what Handsome Stan is doing now) but fucking A. Will you please have my babies?
You guys are way too kind. It would be one thing if I hadn't seen Yellow Submarine, but, come on, that movie's a serious "cheat sheet" for drawing the Beatles. Plus I've had all the album covers staring me in the face from iTunes all the time, with their faces over and over.
Meanwhile nobody followed my extended (and illustrated!) Keira Knightley paen in the other thread. Another example of Jordan paying very close attention to a face...
I'm sure if you made Keira Knightly's face yourself, we'd pay more attention.
I'm psyched about the new Beatles bonanza but my iPod just died and I need a new optical reader for my laptop... in other words, my hardware is handicapping my musical participation these days.
Well, octo, that's interesting...the difference between "using words to convey that you understand a face" vs. "using a picture to convey that you understand a face."
Jordan I LOVE the doodle & wish I could afford the new box set but it's out of the question right now. I'm so jealous.
I can't afford it either! "Pirate."
jordan, thanks for letting us know that true fans need to at least hear, if not own, the remasters.
and speaking of owning, i don't suppose chipping in on an east coast box set to circulate/share (jpx? cat?) makes sense? i can afford a percentage of the box set right now, have no need to own the the physical cds permanently, but would love to have them in my possession for a few days.
First of all: Velvet Underground is better and if you're not familiar with every song they ever recorded then you're no friend of mine.
AC - I want in on the box set even though I'm on the west coast. All I want is a burned copy of them all and I'll pitch in divided by how many others are interested.
If I know JPX (and I do), he'll gladly take possession/guard with his life the the box set. So that makes three?
Re: Jordan's drawing
I like how John is top center, as he should be. Paul and George are almost the same height but Paul is on the left and juuuuust slightly higher because, ya know. And Ringo has accepted his lot at the bottom, with class.
AC-I'll pitch in and I'd be happy with a burned copy as well so JPX can take ownership of the box as far as I'm concerned.
I'm on board but I'm perfectly content with copies as well!
woohoo!
Listening to music is all about sacrifices and getting a reproduction that was hand crafted with patience and passion is a gift. I think that's what makes this release so much fun.
I believe the goal for this reproduction was to create a live sound. This would be a change from the original recordings in many ways but done right could definitely offer a fresh take on some songs we have enjoyed through the years. Love was a labor of just that, a couple of engineers in the studio for two years to recreate what it would feel like to hear the Beatles live.
Vinyl is still an audiophile medium as cd audio is still a compression or dilution of the original source, like the mp3 codec, that doesn't fully represent an original. Now if you're listening to music on an ipod, what's the difference? Even with some fantastic headphones, not a major difference because depending on your bit rate, d/a converter, amount of jitter, preamps, opamps ad nauseum. You are loosing quite a bit from the original recordings even with some of the best equipment.
I liken great production in sound to movies for people that don'understand it in audio realms. For instance I have seen some blue ray transfers that were actually no better than the DVD release. With a 1080p TV and player, and all the right equipment are you going to get a better picture with a crappy transfer? Actually your equipment will show off the noise even more.
Reverse that and get some real experts in who really care about what's happening and all of a sudden it, whether that it is a movie or a cd, springs to life. I think that's what happened here with Love.
There are still legions who listen to analogue for it's smooth and more accurate reproduction of original source however to really appreciate it you need some equipment that is equivalent to a decent down payment for a house or beyond.
I had a nice SACD player that played 24 bit audio; you could actually hear what the masters sounded like if they were done in a DDD format or get really close on an AAD format. They are still a joy to hear, matter of fact I couldn't listen to the original 16 bit cd if I had a SACD version if it and, and this is a very big "and", it was a good transfer of the original source. I had a few SACDs that really made no difference at all and at times I thought may have sounded worse than my original. Unfortunately the publics love of all things mediocre meant the inevitable demise of SACD.
Ok I have been windy about this topic enough, it's just really great reproductions get my geek audio juices flowing. :p
I'll close with this, DVD-A is high rez format just like SACD and if you want to have your head blown off, check out Love in 6 channel high rez format.
http://www.audaud.com/printer?ArticleID=2500
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