This is a completely different experience.<\/p>\n
This is the way you remember them.\u00c2\u00a0 Not scrubbed clean, but emanating from one speaker in the dash, one speaker underneath the spinning wheel of your all-in-one record player.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not about revelation, but basking in the joy of the music itself.\u00c2\u00a0 These are the CDs you want to buy to listen to while you’re having a party, while you’re cleaning the house.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re more MUSICAL!<\/p>\n
Listening to the stereo CDs is being an archaeologist, digging in deep, studying the nuances that have been revealed by the cleansing of tender-loving brushstrokes, which have revealed all the parts, flaws and all.\u00c2\u00a0 Listening to the mono CDs is just like being in the sixties, albeit a sprightlier, cleaner version.<\/p>\n
Let’s put it this way.\u00c2\u00a0 When you go to the show do you need to sit up front or a healthy distance back, where the sound blends properly, near the soundboard, where the engineer mixes the sound.\u00c2\u00a0 If you want to see the performer spit, if you want the adrenaline of proximity to a star, you pay extra to sit in the front row.\u00c2\u00a0 But if you want the best sound, you’ll be disappointed, the vocal will be unhearable, the balance will be tweaked, you won’t be happy.<\/p>\n
Not that you want to sit in the rafters.<\/p>\n
We all want a good seat, it’s just a question of your definition.<\/p>\n
Ultimately, concerts are about the sound.\u00c2\u00a0 Fifteen or twenty rows back is usually best.<\/p>\n
The mono "Sgt. Pepper" coheres in a way the stereo version does not.\u00c2\u00a0 You tap your toe as opposed to utilizing your aural bifocals to see the music’s components.\u00c2\u00a0 A great mechanic wants to raise the hood, see exactly what engine is employed, how it’s tuned.\u00c2\u00a0 A driver wants to leave the garage, let the wind blow through his hair and have an experience.\u00c2\u00a0 The mono CDs are a better experience.<\/p>\n
But you might be disappointed.\u00c2\u00a0 If you’re sleuthing, if you want to be blown away, you need the stereo mixes.\u00c2\u00a0 When you hear Paul McCartney sing "Till There Was You", with his unique accent, singing "at TALL", your jaw will drop.\u00c2\u00a0 You never dreamed of getting this close.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereas when you hear the same song in mono, without Paul’s vocal isolated, you won’t get the same effect.<\/p>\n
In other words, if you want to sit next to George Martin at the console, DEFINITELY get the stereo CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 But, if you want to remember what it was like in your bedroom, at parties, driving in the car, you’ll enjoy the mono CDs better.<\/p>\n
But that’s not the end of the story.<\/p>\n
Actually, the booklet in the mono box set delineates the truth concisely and authoritatively.\u00c2\u00a0 You see, in the eyes of the Beatles, all the way through the White Album, the mono mixes were the definitive ones.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, the same tracks were not always mixed, and mixing vagaries ended up in tracks containing different parts, even having different speeds.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll notice these differences, especially when pointed out, but on an overall basis, they’re far from dramatic.<\/p>\n
The stereo CDs breathe.\u00c2\u00a0 But it’s kind of like those people in the magazines.\u00c2\u00a0 Seeing their photos in two dimensions, you imbue them with your own feelings and interpretations, whereas if you met them in real life they might not fit your fantasy whatsoever.\u00c2\u00a0 The stereo CDs reveal almost more than you need to know.\u00c2\u00a0 But that’s why most people are going to rush out and buy these remasters, they want to know more.\u00c2\u00a0 Sure, in time these remasters will become the definitive statement, we’ll be listening to these mixes for years, newbies will only know them.\u00c2\u00a0 But Beatle fanatics are looking for more than the eighties CDs.\u00c2\u00a0 You’ll get more with the stereo albums.<\/p>\n
Having said that, know that cognoscenti are going to salivate over the mono box.\u00c2\u00a0 The packaging is staggering.\u00c2\u00a0 Japanese TLC on steroids.<\/p>\n
Yes, each CD comes individually wrapped in plastic, that seals with stickum, so these plastic cases can be retained, keeping your original covers in pristine condition.<\/p>\n
And not only are they the original covers, they’re the original inner sleeves!\u00c2\u00a0 Each CD comes in a plastic bag, of the kind the major labels in America finally went to in the eighties, but also included in the slip cover is the appropriate paper inner sleeve.\u00c2\u00a0 Telling you to take good care of your "Microgroove Records".<\/p>\n
Furthermore, "Sgt. Pepper" contains the jigsaw, fade from red to white inner sleeve, and the cutouts, not printed in a booklet, but on a separate page, just like the original, back in 1967.<\/p>\n
And the CDs have replicas of the original Parlophone labels.\u00c2\u00a0 Yet the White Album has Apple labels (remember how cool it was to slip the record out of its sleeve and see this for the very first time?)\u00c2\u00a0 Since "Magical Mystery Tour" was an American release, it wears the Capitol logo.\u00c2\u00a0 And Disc 1 of "Past Masters" uses Parlophone and Disc 2 Apple.<\/p>\n
If you’re into collecting, you need the mono box.<\/p>\n
Then again, if you’re collecting, you’re probably going to buy both.<\/p>\n
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