Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band -Remastered-

Focusing on the remastered CD
Having spent some time listening to the remastered CD of Sgt Pepper, I don't understand what all the fuss is about. Don't get me wrong: Sgt Pepper was an ambitious and brilliant album which is as fresh today as it was when I pulled the shrink wrap off my vinyl copy in June 1967. In fact, I'm amazed at how attentive I still am listening to it. It's not my favorite album, but it's very, very close. But I've compared the remastered CD to the 1987 CD carefully through a good system, both on speakers and headphones, and aside of the greater volume in the remastered CD, it doesn't sound any different to me than the earlier one. When I make the volume equal between the two, I can't tell which is which without looking. Out of curiosity, I ripped the same three tracks from each copy to WAV format and looked at the wave forms in my PC's recording software (the title track, "She's Leaving Home" and "Lovely Rita"). The difference in amplitude is striking (and it explains why the new one's bass seems louder in direct comparison) but aside of that, the wave forms look very similar. I've read that the stereo remasters were subjected to a little compression, but I don't hear any difference from that treatment. I don't think anyone is pulling a fast one here, and I expect the EMI engineers worked dilligently to make the most of the music. But I have a feeling that modern technology and engineering skills can do only so much with 42-year-old recordings laid down and down-mixed repeatedly on four-track equipment. To those who hear better sound, more power to you, but I hear nothing in the new CD that I don't hear in the old one. This is the reason I give the CD four stars instead of five. The album itself rates five, but while those who don't already have a copy of Sgt Pepper won't go wrong with this one, they also won't go wrong with the previous CD, unless they want the more authentic packaging. (BTW, for some reason the stereo version of "She's Leaving Home" was produced at a slightly slower speed than the mono version. The result is that the song is about a quarter-tone flat, and the song has a decidedly dreary sound, particularly in McCartney's voice. However, this is not a fault in the remastered CD; it's always been that way going back to the original LPs. I don't know why this was done, but the mono version puts the song in an entirely different light, and it should be sought out. If you don't have the dough for the mono box set, find someone who has the mono LP and give it a listen.)

The act you've known for all these years
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" may not have been the first "concept album" -- the Beach Boys' unreleased "Smile" and the Pretty Things' "S.F. Sorrow" arguably got there first. (And Franz Schubert predated all of them 140 years earlier with his album-length song cycles "Die schone Mullerin" and "Winterreise"). But characteristically, the Beatles' magnum opus went farther and further than the others, expanding the boundaries of what constituted popular music. Forty-two years after its original release and what seems like a century's worth of deification, SPLHCB still sounds fresh, ground-breaking and amazingly unpretentious -- and tightly constructed in comparison to some of the excesses that would come along in the 1970s. Aside from the SPLHCB tracks that were recycled for the 1968 "Yellow Submarine" movie and thus appear on the 1999 "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" release, I've never heard this album in digital format before now. I never thought to pick this up in its 1987 CD incarnation, because having known this record since childhood, for many years I had fallen out of love with it, buying into the idea that this was a wildly overpraised relic of the "Summer of Love." It's just as well that I didn't acquire that earlier CD version, because the sound of the '87 releases was thin and harsh, and SPLHCB has always deserved first-class sonic treatment. Which it gets here, allowing the formerly skeptical listener to re-hear it with new ears. It's idle to pretend that this record "sounds like it was recorded yesterday," as some reviewers breathlessly proclaim; dozens of circa-1967 tracks crammed onto a 4-track tape ain't gonna be confused with a modern production. But it does shine like the proverbial old painting that has been scrubbed clean of grime. And one of the macro-details that comes through in this remastering is the handmade quality of those dense, complex arrangements: all the more dazzling for being just a tad more fallible and "human" than a clinically perfect studio job of today. On first listen to this CD, I followed the "original" order, as mentioned in the liner notes, of the seven songs that constituted Side 1 of the LP (i.e., "SPLHCB"/"With a Little Help from My Friends" followed by "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," "Fixing a Hole," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "Getting Better" and "She's Leaving Home"). Much as I wanted to believe that the original sequencing would be more effective, I can't say it did much for me, although "She's Leaving Home" as a side-closer works well. This record, after all, is the end product of many, many revisions and "let's try this instead" second thoughts; the re-ordering of the Side 1 tracks is just one of them. And kudos to George Martin or whoever came up with the revised order of the first seven tracks as finally released; it flows better musically.

What remastering?
A friend of mine bought this cd today and brought it over to my house. We compared his new "remastered" copy with my original. The only difference is that his was louder. That's it. No clearer, no more noticeable bass or drums. Nothing. Don't waste your time buying this "remastered" version, since you're not missing out on anything but a few decibels. The reason I still give this a 3 star is because it is one of my favorite Beatles albums, and is well worth your time to listen to.

It's like you've never Sgt. Pepper's before
WOW!!! I just recieved my first order of the remastered cds today. As I said, it's like hearing these albums for the very first time. And what a sound it is !!! The voices pop out at you, and the instrumentation is clear, crisp and complex in its' simplicity. It becomes evident just how much of a range John and Paul's voice have. For the first time I heard Paul's technique and mastery of the bass; I finally hear how integral and necessary Ringo's drums are. I can't wait to hear the other cd's I recieved and order the remaining ones I need to replace my older editions.

The Greatest Album in Rock & Roll History,in spite of a few flaws
Sgt.Peppers is by far the most sacred album in R&R history,but there are a few flaws on the version we all have come to know.1.The song sequence is wrong from the initial conception 2.There are two missing songs.But with a little effort,these can be fixed,especially now that all has been remastered.