Featured

More Beatles

Here are some more impressions. We’re going to do Beatles For Sale and Help! today. I know I’m very late, but better than never, as they say.

I have strangely opposite reactions to the remasters with respect to these two albums. I prefer the stereo remaster of Beatles For Sale. It sounds more in line with what we’re used to hearing in modern music. Certainly, both can be easily distinguished from the original records and the ’87 remasters. Just listen to the resonant guitar opening in I’ll Follow The Sun. It’s gorgeous.

To my mind, the stereo version has a nicer balance. The mono version also seems more distant to me, like on Rock And Roll Music, where John’s voice seems a little far away from the rest of the band. The separations are irritating as usual on the stereo edition, but not enough to frustrate me. I also find, as with most of the other remasters, that I can hear the individual voices more distinctly in the stereo version, and I think that’s a matter of taste.

To me, the songs here seem more alive. As expected, there’s a little bit more depth, more clarity and better balance with these songs, but as a whole, Beatles For Sale seems to glow. It’s like hearing an album proper for the first time after listening to it from behind a wall your entire life.

On the other hand, I like Help!‘s mono version better. The stereo version sounds noticeably harsh in areas. This was especially clear to me in You Like Me Too Much. That said, it also has more punch, so it may be a matter of preference. I find that it takes a little acclimitisation before I actually start enjoying the mono version (it’s like it takes place in a different kind of space altogether), though, all things considered, it has a warmer, fuller, and less disjointed sound that I prefer.

Help! is far from my favourite Beatles album, but it has some songs that I’ve lived with and will continue to live with for a long, long time. It’s nice to rediscover them in this new package, with just that little bit more definition and detail, and know that they’re songs that I’ll be able to count on for a long, long time to come.

I think the same can be said about the rest of the Beatles remasters, and I promise I’ll get to them with some sense of urgency.

d

© 2010 a modest odyssey.