Recently Listen Up Manchester went a bit mad and spent £385 on a collection of recent Beatles releases. The main purchase being the £300 Stereo Remaseters Vinyl Boxset (which will be the main focus of this review), but the other releases we will quickly cover first.
Love Me Do 7" 50th Anniversary reissue - this is a replica of the original debut single to mark the 50th Anniversary complete with red label & wavey line sleeve design to recreate the look of the 1st parlophone pressing. A nice collectible to commemorate 50 years.
Magical Mystery Tour Deluxe Edition - this recent release contains both a DVD & Blu-Ray discs of the Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour film - the film itself a psychedellic avant garde film following the Beatles on a bus tour filled with odd characters and even odder scenes. It contains some interesting musical interludes including videos for I am the Walrus, Your Mother Should Know & the Title Track amongst others. Not much in the way of plot, but the Beatles during their most "far out" period. The rest of the deluxe edition contains a nice 60 page book featuring previously unseen photos & a replica of the original double 7" Vinyl EP in Mono. Also in the box is a ticket stub for the Magical Mystery tour - all in all a nice "Deluxe Edition" of the newly restored and Remastered DVD & Blu-Ray release of the film.
The Beatles Record Store Day Release - 4 disc 7" single box set - even the Beatles got involved with Record Store Day earlier in the year with this limited editon box of singles - the box containing: Single 1: Ticket to Ride / Yes it is Single 2: Yellow Submarine / Eleanor Rigby Single 3: Hey Jude / Revolution & Single 4: Something / Come Together. It also contains a poster of the Beatles from '65 - a nice collectable from Record Store Day!
Right then - all of the above are all very nice (collectable) releases from this year for one of the all time greatest bands in the history of popular music, but the real star release this year is the almighty Beatles Stereo Remasters Vinyl Boxset - released this week (12th November 2012) - it is the long awaited vinyl issue of the 2009 remasters. There is no point reviewing the music as there is the past 50 years of reviews, articles, books etc devoted to the music of the Beatles. The thing to focus on is the sheer quality of this release. Being a huge Beatles fan for many years now I have heard these songs many many times, but (and even compared to the CD issues in 2009) these are by far the best sound quality issues of these albums. The box contains all the 13 studio albums plus the 2 Past Masters albums - providing a "complete works of" collection - all from the 2009 remasters and pressed in the highest quality 180g heavyweight Vinyl. Many people (including myself) agree that a good quality vinyl is far superior than the sound of CD, and to me that is what makes this boxset the finest sounding issues of any Beatles release to date. The engineers at Apple/EMI have done a marvelous job to deliver an Audiophilles wet dream in a box! The box also includes a lovely deluxe 252 hardback book which details the importance if vinyl and the mastering process - something good to read whilst listening to the greatest catalouge of music from one band - The Beatles! If you have a good quality record player and a spare £300 - then do yourself a favour buy this boxset now!
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