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The classic original Beatles studio albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the Beatles catalogue has seen since its original release. Within each CD's new packaging, booklets include detailed historical notes along with informative recording notes. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. The newly produced mini-documentaries on the making of each album, directed by Bob Smeaton, are included as QuickTime files on each album. The documentaries contain archival footage, rare photographs and never-before-heard studio chat from The Beatles, offering a unique and very personal insight into the studio atmosphere.
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Reviews:
Don't understand the complaints, Re-Mastering sounds GREAT!!
Not sure why some people are ragging all over the re-mastering, but I have the original CD released in 1987, and this one sounds 100% better. Played both versions in my car and I could most definitaly hear a difference. Worth the price.
Perfect companion to "Sgt. Pepper"
The remastering here is fine even though it uses the exact same mix as the original version. The first half of "I Am The Walrus" is in stereo, but the second half sounds like it's in duophonic whereas on the 2006 album "LOVE" it's entirely in stereo. Also, "Baby You're A Rich Man" and "All You Need Is Love" fade a little earlier. But if there's a real reason to get this version it's because of the booklet and the enhanced section. The mini-documentary shows clips of the Fab Four's TV film of the same name and part of the "Strawberry Fields Forever" music video. The interviews sound like they were taken from the Anthology. The booklet shows practically all of the photos and illustrations that appeared in the original LP. It also has historical and recording notes.
By the way, I noticed at the back cover it says Magical Mystery Tour mini-documentary but on the disc itself it says Let It Be mini-documentary (!) Someone at Capitol Records obviously goofed. At any rate, this is a great collection of songs featuring five hit singles. If you liked "Sgt. Pepper" you'll like this album too.
total time-36:32
Much Ado About Nothing
Magical Mystery Tour is my favourite Beatles' album. Well, it's not exactly an album but a collection of an EP and a handful of the very best singles (the Beatles) ever released. Therefore it doesn't flow as smoothly as Sgt. Pepper and the track list seems a bit stitched up. But on a song by song level this album beats any other by the Beatles. Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, Walrus, Hello Goodbye, Fool On The Hill are among the bands best songs. And even lesser songs like Your Mother Should Know, Blue Jay Way and Baby You're a Rich Man are great additions.
I was particularly curious about this re-master not only because it is my favourite but because a few of these songs have a lot going on beneath the surface - most noticeably Strawberry Fields and Walrus. After all this is the Beatles riding the top of psychedelia.
So, once again, I felt disappointed. The sound is just a bit louder and sharper but there is nothing new here to be discovered. And the first cd editions didn't sound that bad. Maybe on a really good - and expensive - hi-fi I would notice some more substantial differences but I doubt it would blow me away. And, come on, most of us are going to listen to these on car stereos or at home while talking to our families or arranging dinner. How many times are we going to seat quietly on the sofa and listen closely to these songs and expect to be surprised?
So what's this fuss all about? Why burn our money on these? The packaging is very nice but don't the Beatles deserve better than this? And the mini-doc is a joke, really - it would be better left off. My guess is that these re-masters come on the tail of the video game and not the other way around. And as an opportunity to cash-in some more, it definitely seems to be working.
(Last year Jethro Tull put out a Deluxe Edition of their first album This Was - double cd with both mono and stereo - slightly remixed - versions and a bunch of BBC recordings and singles. Now, that's the way to do it!)
If EMI wants to milk the Beatles fans at least they should be presenting them with something really awesome, not just some slightly improved recordings on a cardboard jacket with a ridiculous mini-doc to round things up.
Ugh
Many of the beatles albums now sound dated in my opinion, and none more so than MMT. The sonic improvement can only go so far in improving the hopelessly out of date music. I am the Walrus, indeed.
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One thing I noticed about the Beatles re-issues was the unevenness associated which each song. Some songs blow me away and others are simply good. Don't get me wrong, each song sounds vastly improved. The White album is incredible, I'm shocked no remixing was done. However, Magical upon first listen was very disappointing. I mean over 22 years of waiting and this is the best they can do? I realize now since they handled each album differently all they wanted to do with this is clean it up a bit and make it sound clearer which it does. I just felt they could have beefed up this recording a bit. I feel like it has no balls. It's still better but for a 22 year wait they could have done more.
