Yellow Submarine (Enhanced, Limited Edition, Original Recording Remastered)

by

The Beatles

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As to avoid any confusion, this review is specifically for the remastered version of "Yellow Submarine" since many past reviews are appearing here.

I began my quest to obtain all of the Beatles' remastered CD's with this one per my son's request; he loves the movie as well the music, so this one was an obvious choice for him!

With all of the hype surrounding the release of the remasters, I went into it with a lot of expectations, & after hearing the opening of the title track, my wife & I were believers immediately; our collective "WOW!" reaction was all it took!

The difference between this & the original 1990 CD issue is literally like night & day; the sound is greatly improved & the clarity is incredible. Of course, the technology to achieve this was not there in 1990, so for what it was, it was good; but this is astounding!

If the band tracks are not enough to convince you, listen to George Martin's orchestral score beginning with "Pepperland"; in short, it will take your breath away! Lush strings, horns & percussion all come to the forefront like never before; the sound is so beautiful & crystal clear that you feel as if you're there in the studio with them.

Do not hesitate to buy all of the remasters...I certainly won't!

While the 2009 remasters are as close as we aged original Beatle fans will get to our beloved vinyls, I recall being disappointed with the muddiness of "Baby Your a Rich Man" (on the "Magical Mystery Tour" LP), "All You Need is Love", "Only A Northern Song", "All Too Much" and a few other LP tracks way back in the 60's. While the 2009 remasters are great, the muddiness evident in these select tracks has carried over to the 2009 remasters. If you want to hear the lads singing in your living room instead of through a sock, may I suggest you pick up "Songtrack" instead of the remastered compilation offered here. All six of the lad's contributions on this CD are remixed and enhanced with much greater clarity on the "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" CD, including many other remixed tracks from other albums. Now that I've experienced the vitality of so many of these "cleaned up" tracks on Songtrack, it's hard to go back to the old LP's or even the new remasters to listen to them since they sound so much more alive on "Songtrack". Compare for yourself. I know many pundits for authenticity don't like to mess with the original recordings but nothing is added or taken away from the lad's performances in "Songtrack". If anything, you can hear them better. As for George Martin's instrumentals, they're great in the context of the movie, but since they are at times reactive to what's going on on the screen and we can't see the screen on an audio CD, it just doesn't stand alone as a listening experience. It's like watching a Road Runner cartoon with a burned out projector lamp. Those opposed to remixing perhaps should take note; the same engineers and project coordinator who gave us the 2009 remasters (Allan Rouse, Paul Hicks and Steve Rooke) also gave us Songtrack. Evidently they too knew what needed to be done.