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If I were you, I'd try one out before you buy the whole collection in remastered form. Since the earlier release of this CD in the jewel case plays fine, it has to be something about this remastered version that my player doesn't like. I played this disc factory new on a brand new CD player, and it would not play without skips and stops and starts on each song. I returned the disc thinking it was defective, and the replacement copy did the same thing.
This recording was one of the most remarkable of my childhood with songs that bring back memories of my first love
he playing is very tight, which could also be a reason for the aforementioned 1964-sound. In the U.S., the songs was included on the album "The Beatles' Second Album". The fact that the two songwriters usually wrote their songs separately is a different matter. It was normally European standard that a Beatles album contained 14 songs, but in this case for unknown reasons, only 13 were selected - especially strange because the very strong Lennon's song "I Call Your Name" was recorded during the same sessions. "A Hard Day's Night" is the title of the Beatles' third album and their first feature film.
"I Call Your Name" was along with three coverversins released on the 1964 EP "Long Tall Sally". Numbers like "Can not Buy Me Love," "You Can not Do That" and "Anytime at All" are good examples of this sound. The song should have earned a place on this album, as it subsequently often has been forgotten / ignored - at least in Europe. Well, at any rate this is great album. Lennon is on most Beatles albums the dominant singer and songwriter, and this is particularly evident on this album. The remainder of Lennon's contributions are more average, but far from weak.
The first seven tracks were included in the film's soundtrack, and these were the first to be recorded. The group shows of the album an impressive continuation of the rapid musical development that had started with the first recordings with George Martin late in 1962. McCartney is in focus on the hit single "Can not Buy Me Love", and he also contributes the two evergreen ballads "Things We Said Today" and "And I Love Her". One interesting thing is that the album is the first and only one on which all titles are credited to Lennon-McCartney. He is the man behind many of the most memorable numbers from the album, including the titletrack, "I Should Have Known Better" (a sure hit had it been released as a single), "Anytime at All," "You Can not Do That" and the beautiful ballad "If I Fell". Vocally both Lennon and McCartney are on top, and Harrison beautifully falls into the delicate harmonies.
There something special and recognizable about the group's 1964 sound; what this exactly is can be difficult to describe, but Harrison's 12-string guitar is definitely one of the reasons. The songwriting is with very few exceptions outstanding first class.
I would purchase from this seller again. Product was just how it was discribed. They were prompt.
I was hoping that with today's technology a truly good stereo mix could be made. In fairness, the packaging on this new series is first rate and makes the buy almost worth it, but when I think of what could've been achieved I am left scratching my head except to think that they want to release the catalogue again later on in some still more improved version.Curiously, I do find some of the stereo versions superior on other Beatle albums. It was later that the stereo versions were created and the result was often very poor. Sometimes even the music itself was affected, with different arrangements of harmonica, lead guitar and echo etc. Although "monophonic" to many connotes an inferior quality, they really sound quite crisp and clean--it is just that the same sound comes out of each speaker. I can only predict a yet more "improved" release 20 years down the road. I am not sure why. Two tracks are very offensive and it bothers me to no end that these nasty versions may now become the standard.
The other offense is "I Should Have Known Better" in which the harmonica cuts out, as if John were out of breath, in the introduction. This review is not about the album itself, which is a must have, but about the newly released remastered version. After all, there is software now that allows one to isolate a voice or bass line to create a new and separate track from a mono recording, so theoretically, new truly stereo mixes could be made. First is "If I Fell" which, for some reason has an inferior vocal track in which Paul's voice glaringly cracks on the high note of "was in vain." This flaw is not present on the mono mix. All you can do with a two track recording is put instruments on one side and voices on the other etc. Unfortunately that is still the case here.All that was done here as far as remastering that i can tell is that the loudness is turned up and the bass is louder--or boomier depending on your taste. This technique was used to create the Beatles Rockband game after all and I expected much more from these new releases. This album along with much of the early Beatle's catalogue was originally intended to be heard in monophonic sound which was the standard of the industry at the time.
There is no tinnyness that one associates with very old recordings from say the 1940's. "I call Your Name" has a more nimble and musical lead guitar line from George and "Thank You Girl" has more harmonica echoing the line "too good to be true"So I enjoyed the new remastered "Past Masters." However "Paperback Writer" still begins, annoyingly, on just the left speaker until the drums kick in.This particular ablum is made much worse in the stereo version. This again is not present in the original monophonic version. Also, there is too much echo on Johns solo introduction--it sounds like he is in a cave somewhere. Maybe there is still some technological problem that I am unaware of, but they have done marvelous things with the Yellow Submarine Songtrack so i was expecting a lot more.
I would not buy this unless you want the packaging.I am quite bothered that they would make no effort to improve these stereo mixes, which everyone knows stink, and simply remaster this junk. I always found the old mono version to be irritatingly piercing. I was bummed out. For example, "From Me to You" is much better in stereo, because the harmonica at the beginning has been removed. It is often impossible to take music that was recorded and mixed for mono and make it sound good in stereo.
I will continue to listen to my old mono CD instead of this one. When the Beatles catalogue was first released on CD George Martin decided to release the first four albums in their original monophonic form, because that is how they were intended to be heard by he and the Beatles and the existing stereo mixes sounded terrible. For devotees, the mono versions have always been considered superior for this reason. After listening to this new stereo version, there are no improvements to the original poor-quality stereo mixes at all, and I have no idea why they didn't take the time to do it while George Martin, Paul and Ringo are still here.
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