The Beatles: The U.S. Albums

On January 20th, commemorating the 50th  anniversary of the Beatles first visit to the States, Apple arranged through Capitol Records for a special set of albums released for the US market specifically to be issued in both boxed and for a limited period separate editions as well as on iTunes. They contain both mono and stereo versions of each album.

As you can see they come in the collector popular Mini LP style mimicking the feel of a vinyl album with card jackets, replica inner sleeves and like their Japanese counterparts, have a plastic sleeve to keep the cd free from scratches with the entire packaged disc in a resealable archive see through plastic wallet. 

In America because royalties were charged per track rather than per album it was normal for their lps to have 11 or 12 tracks compared to typically 14 on British releases plus in the states albums always featured the hit single(s) whereas in Britain they didn't.

This needless to say is why these albums, the ones I grew up with on record, are different than the now standardized British ones and so for many North Americans are the albums we cherish as quirky as they were.

Eight of these albums were reissued in a set of cheesy boxes in 2004 and 2006 with thin card covers the sort British people would associate with newspaper giveaways or some of us remember ISP's giving out with the first set being quite blurry too. I wrote about these sets at the time.

The recordings used were sent over from Great Britain usually using the same final mixes for mono or stereo as the UK releases although when tracks were sent early due to requests from Capitol for an upcoming album, sometimes different versions were sent from the one decided upon for the UK.

These were copied altering the sound, adding echo and in some instances making fake stereo versions from mono tapes and then used on the lps, a process which while giving it a unique sound nonetheless caused some loss of quality compared to the tapes Capitol received.

The earlier box sets used these modified tapes throughout  with the mastering engineer just trying to get them as good sounding as the material he had would allow.

This album, a favourite of mine in this set, is a good example of that with two incredibly bad fake stereo songs in the middle of quite reasonable stereo with one unique mix and on the older cd it's that you hear on the stereo portion and some of mono tracks are not actual mono mixes just the stereo combined into mono.

The new version removes the fake stereo replacing it with true stereo mixes one of which had been available since 1966(!), keeps the echoey  mono US single version and uses the UK mixes for everything that's not unique.

It's this that has proven controversial with some fans who wanted an exact replica in sound of their lps but speaking personally having bought this version, I'm delighted with it as it approaches what I consider a 'audiophile' remastering, going back to originals, removing the  sonic grime to reveal more of the music making never mind the uprated packaging.

The four previously unreleased on cd albums are the A Hard day's Night movie soundtrack with instrumentals from the film originally issued on United Artists, Yesterday and Today, the US Revolver album I had which only had 11 tracks and the stereo only Hey Jude compilation of February 1970 featured then unreleased stereo versions of a good number of  Beatles singles.

I was going to buy the Box set complete with the mainly talk The Beatles Story bonus album but I didn't, this was sadly connected to another, less defensible aspect of how this project was handled by Apple.

Way back in the mid 1980's as plans were drawn up to release on compact disc the Beatles catalogue, Sir George Martin  was allowed to remix two UK albums (Help! and Rubber Soul) from the four track session tapes.

Discovering Abbey Road studios echo chamber used on a number of tracks was out of use, he used digitally generated delay to attempt to get the same sound. Unfortunately it sound more like a karaoke type echo especially when he over did it on Dizzy Miss Lizzie and Drive My Car. Personally I can't stand them being 'too modern'.

These versions were themselves remastered in 2009 for the stereo set although the original 1965 stereo mixes were put on the mono cd set as bonuses.

Coming back to 2014, Apple have decided to use these stereo  remakes for the tracks from those two UK albums featured in four of the albums in this box set  (Beatles VI, Help Soundtrack, Rubber Soul and Yesterday and Today) where the previous 2006 box that had the first three with the 1965 stereo mixes on.

Personally, owing the the previous set, I really object to paying £146 for three albums whose stereo portions deviate from that which was issued not just in North America but even in the UK up to 1987.

I decided to rebuy the first four (Meet The Beatles, Second Album, Something New and Beatles '65) as the sound on at least the first two wasn't so clean,Second Album had an excessive amount of echo added to it and get the four previously unissued ones even with the stereo portion of Yesterday and Today being compromised with only 5 original mixes for the otherwise unavailable mono version.

As for the others, if I can come by cheap copies I may get them and switch the discs over as there's nothing on the jackets to tie them to any specific cd because I adore the packaging.

To  summarize my thoughts on this set, I really liked the idea of it as quite a bit of thought had gone into the packaging and even a great booklet for the boxed edition, almost equalling the acclaimed Beatles in Mono box but feel the sound side of it was compromised for a number of the discs needlessly in the stereo portions by insisting on not using the original UK mixes sent at the time and loved by most fans.

I'd give the set 7 out of 10 on balance .

More Beatles Mini lps:
At the start of the year I'd acquired some unofficial mini lps of albums put out in the 1970's that had been retired with aim of buying this set adding these to them.

1976's 28 track Rock and Roll Music compilation, a double lp on a single cd although it lacks the gatefold of the original is well printed.It uses the untouched UK versions of the tracks unlike the Capitol edition.

1977's Love Songs compilation which comprises of 25 songs with a love theme, lacking the gatefold but this section is part of a four page insert.
It's always been a favourite of mine being a comforting listen at boarding school running for about an hour.

1977's Live album of recordings from August 1964 and 1965 at the Hollywood Bowl that Apple refuse to release presented in full gatefold form reproducing the rear essay by Sir George Martin clearly with original lp styled photo inner sleeve.

The audio on these pressed cds (they're not cheap home made jobs) is actually very good matching that of the lps reproduced on a high quality vinyl system and come with Japanese notes and full English lyrics. 

If you need them, these discs are good value.

Jessops and HMV closures

I guess it had to happen really and was more question of when rather than if but the UK photography chain Jessops went into receivership as of January 9th brought about by an inability in the part of directors, creditors and suppliers to extend credit to this long established but ailing concern that goes back many decades.

It's my understanding some suppliers had during last year offered credit to them to enable their products to be sold as it was the #1 high street outlet for their goods.

Jessops was the first chain in the UK I established a relationship with as a consumer, a place where at the time you could get all manner of advice connected with photography, the virtues of different lenses, filters, film etc over the sales counter. 

My local branch would root out stuff for me to try instore without obligation. They also run a photography residential school with industry experts providing tuition.

Two things probably did for this type of retailing, the first being digital photography has  less repeat custom after buying a camera and maybe a spare memory card and for Dslr users an additional lens or two. You sure wouldn't be buying a new memory card each week in the way you bought film and although they'd invested in instore printing, a lot of casual users either print at home or don't even print their images so you wouldn't be getting much of an income stream from that!

 
As a traditional film slr user I saw reductions traditional products in stock to the point while on vacation I couldn't get medium speed print film and ended up visiting a well known drugstore that had better stocks off the shelf!

Also many users use smartphones as cameras leading to a drop in demand for digital compacts that come on contracts while professionals users would use online stores that held larger 'to go' supplies with rapid delivery 

Last week, he said trying desperately not to come over all smug, it's finally happened, music retailing has moved from the high street.  Poor ol' Nipper.

Well okay, I know that's Birmingham Bull Ring, not Broad Street, but you know what I mean -our town and city centres - with the shock announcement late last night (January 14th) the national music and video retailer HMV was planning on going into administration following poor Christmas sales.

Sounds familiar, eh? And rather like with Jessops they also were being bankrolled by the suppliers who provided much of the January 25% off "Blue Cross" sales stock as did two state owned banks who to put things with my usually matter of factness, want their money back.

Some other similarities include high rents, failure to capitalize on online sales, poor in store stocks (I mean just seven studio albums by the Stones in the branch in a large city branch near me???), uncompetitive online store pricing (Amazon often cheaper).

HMV potentially could of gotten into downloading but after a brief messy store attempt, partnered up with 7Digital who run that for them which would be fine except 7Digital are a big brand in their own right so most would of gone straight to them.

As much as I feel for for all the staff I'm expecting nearly all the branches to go simply because it seems to me you can't run a big chain anymore because of the overheads and also your immediate best sellers, new albums, are stocked by both supermarkets such as ASDA and Tesco cheaply and the likes of Amazon for those who want cds but many more  prefer to download and these can obtained cheaply from the big three Amazon, iTunes and 7Digital.

You can do niche cd selling from a small side street location with an internet presence backed by a warehouse.

Hmv failed also to capitalize on the "Vinyl revival" by stocking few new and re-issue titles that many who like a physical album buy which was the tipping point for me becoming fed  up of having to order run of the mill cd titles only to return later at my expense to collect, getting an account at Amazon  ordering from them. I guess I wasn't alone in that!

I get the nostalgia many are feeling, remembering the first time I visited HMV Oxford Street London and the Manchester store still having those records and the many BritPop vinyl  titles on 7" and 12" lp I bought new that are most collectible.

I just feel by years end the high street will be that much the poorer.