Gui Boratto, ‘Beautiful Life’

I know I’m a tad behind the curve talking about the new Beatles reissues that hit the shelves last month, but after much deliberation, I decided it would be remiss of me not to mention them somewhere on this blog.

Part of the reason for this delay has been my slow procurement of said CDs. 14 CDs x $12.99 = a lot of scratch. I still haven’t purchased them all (in fact, I’ve only bought half of them, spread out over several weeks), but this isn’t a bad thing. Buying the reissues slowly has given me the opportunity to approach each album with undivided attention and allowed me to absorb and dissect the wonderful remastering job done by the EMI engineering staff. I have to say, they haven’t disappointed yet.

One of the things that kind of blew my mind earlier in the decade was that the Rolling Stones’ catalog got the state of the art remaster/reissue treatment before the Beatles; nothing against the Stones, it’s just that they weren’t really known for their pristine production and creative sound layering back in the 60s, so it didn’t really make a ton of sense to punch up the sound of comparatively simple mixes.

But anyway… I love these reissues. The packaging is great, the sleeve notes are informative, the mini-documentaries encoded in each disc are interesting, and the sound just pops so much compared to the previous 1987 CD releases. Vocal and instrumental parts have more separation from each other now, sound crisper, and things that I never noticed or heard before are now audible. As I said, I’ve only picked up the first seven albums, so I can only imagine how much better the latter seven sound, with all their inherent bells & whistles. That said, these are my Top 10 moments from the first seven discs:

This past weekend, the Redskins bounced back from their embarrassing Week 3 loss to the lowly Detroit Lions with an ugly but desperately needed win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It made me think of my grandfather, a huge ‘Skins booster who never got the chance to see them dig their way out of 17 years of failure and disappointment.

‘Stardust’ by Hoagy Carmichael was one of his favorite songs.

Two entries this week. I suppose this qualifies as the “official” one, as I fully intended to include it after I picked up the album it’s pulled from after I bought it last week (yes, I still pay for music.)

‘Lady Jessica and Sam’ by Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions

The Big Pink, ‘Dominos’

Airborne Toxic Event, ‘Something New’

Magida El Roumi, ‘Etazlet El Gharam’

Gary Schaaf, ‘Things Are Going Swimmingly’

No audio OR video for this one. My friend doing what he does best. The great “lost” Infinite Playlist entry; if you were an email subscriber to the list, you’d have this already. Inquire in the comments or via email if you’d like to join!

Bran Van 3000, ‘Drinkin’ In L.A.’

So, I was gone for almost two weeks on the west coast in September, and I was so swamped with work when I got home that I’ve been unable to update. But I’m back (for the time being.) There will probably be a flurry of posts tomorrow and over the weekend, as I gush about my vacation, post new Infinite Playlist entries, and complete the MLB logos list.