The original 12 Beatles albums, plus Magical Mystery Tour and a now-single-disc version of Past Masters, will be reissued this September 9th. Each will be remastered. Is this a long-needed dusting-off of the not-very-satisfying original CDs or another attempt to get Beatles fans to part with their money? Well, definitely the former, if the press release is to be believed:
Each of the CDs is packaged with replicated original UK album art, including expanded booklets containing original and newly written liner notes and rare photos. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. On the same date, two new Beatles boxed CD collections will also be released.
The albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at EMI's 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 catalogue has seen since its original release.Hurray! As a bonus: The Beatles on Mono will also be available as a 10-disc box set, making original mono mixes available on CD for what is maybe the first time, though I could be wrong about that.
There's more on this story over at Billboard.com, linked to from the ever-dependable Beatles News. If these things sound as good as the press releases are making them sound, then I promise to shut up about digital downloads for at least another several months. I don't really care about the digital downloads anyway-- it's the remastered tracks I've been after. So this is fabulous.
Note that the release date is 9/9/09, the same as a certain video game that I've been excited about. No matter how Rock Band turns out to be, the fact that it's clearly been an impetus to get the remastered tracks out there makes it all worth it. (I guess it would have been embarrassing if the video game's songs sounded noticeably better than the current crop of CDs.)
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Hmm. So you've seen it, then.
ReplyDeleteSo, like I should start saving my nickles, dimes, and quarters now - right?
ReplyDeleteOh my God, it made my day. This is going to be an expensive September-- I already knew I'd have to buy the Rock Band game, and an X-Box or something to play it on, and now I'll clearly need to invest in these as well!
ReplyDelete