Beggars Banquet (Original recording remastered)

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The Rolling Stones

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As you undoubtedly know if you're reading this review, on August 27 2002 ABKCO finally reissued the Rolling Stones catelogue on CD. While some entries are hit and miss, this disc is an unmatched success, and is one of the most delightful surprises I've heard in a while.

Apparently, ALL copy tapes ever used for production versions of this album (and this includes the original vinyl!) were running slow, and were made on incorrectly-calibrated tape machines. This is the first time the original master has been used, and the difference in audio quality is absolutely stunning. It really is *that good*, folks, and if you have any trepidation about upgrading your copy of this milestone album, throw it to the wind. You won't be disappointed.

And as an addendum, need I add that my estactic reaction above comes from the CD layer only? All of the Stones reissues are "hybrid" SACD discs; they have two layers, one that will play in normal CD players, and one that takes advantage of Sony's DSD-based SACD format. Apparently, the SACD format is another "night and day" difference as well.

In summary: excellent album, and an absolutely amazing upgrade. You won't be disappointed.

This is without a doubt one of the best albums the Rolling Stones have released over their long career. The problem, as is the case with all the Universal/ABKCO Rolling Stones releases on CD, is the poor audio quality and packaging. These releases were remastered in the mid 80's using the current technology of the time. The packaging is minimal and the CD only has the original album tracks thus the disc is short. If you can hold out wait until these albums finally get the treatment they deserve -- at least 20bit remastering, new packaging and extra/bonus tracks to use up the empty 50% of the capacity of CD -- otherwise listen to the vinyl, it sounds much better! The record company "monopoly monsters" today continue to sell to unsuspecting customer CD's that were "remastered" at the dawn of the CD age, at close to full price for a disc that is half the length of a new disc today, with terrible audio quality and packaging. The original Beatles albums are also still sold in this way as are the Warner Brothers albums of Van Morrison for example. I have worked in the music industry for a number of years and know from experience, particularly today, the industry is run by a bunch of marketing "spin doctors," lawyers and accountants who know little to nothing about music - to them it is just "product" to be moved. To paraphrase Tom Dowd, if you asked one of them for a "note" they would probably pull a bank note from their pocket.