RELATED: Remastered Beatlemania Hits 9/09/09
LOS ANGELES TIMES: A team of top engineers, led by longtime Beatles associate Allan Rouse, labored for four years to return the feel that was lost in the flimsy-sounding 1987 compact disc reissues — the way everyone except audiophiles and vinyl hoarders (and, at the spectrum’s other end, YouTube browsers) hear Beatles music. “It’s not smarter or more sophisticated,” Paul McCartney recently said in Billboard of the remastering effort. “It’s just more real — it’s more true to the noise we were actually making.” Grasping the archival essence of this latest Beatles push doesn’t at all diminish the delight the reissues offer. Time spent with them is pure joy, and yes, revelation. As many critics have noted, McCartney’s bass playing sounds more powerful throughout, and it’s now possible to really hear Ringo Starr’s inventive drum work. MORE