The Beatles - Abbey Road (Remastered)
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Music CD Cover
Artist: The BeatlesBrand: EMI Music
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Enhanced, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2009-09-09
Music Label: EMI
Product features:
- BEATLES THE ABBEY ROAD (EDICION LIMITADA)
- Come Together
- Something
- Maxwell's Silver Hammer
- Oh! Darling
- Octopus's Garden
- I Want You (She's So Heavy)
- Here Comes The Sun
- Because
- You Never Give Me Your Money
- Sun King
- Mean Mr. Mustard
- Polythene Pam
- She Came In Through The Bathroom Window
- Golden Slumbers
- Carry That Weight
- The End
- Her Majesty
- Abbey Road Documentary
Free Music Notes for Abbey Road (Remastered)
Free Music Review: A Remastered Triumph That Preserves The Integrity Of The Original Recordings
Hit: 5 Stars
I initially wrote this review on the 11 September a couple of days after purchasing purchased several Beatles Remastered items on release day (09 September 2009 - see end of review for a full list)... This is one of them. Initially I listened to this album on one of my secondary set-ups (i.e. a NAD C51BEE CDP, Straightwire Encore-II interconnect, & a Yamaha HTR-5730 amp driving a pair of non-audiophile headphones). I was immediately struck by how Abbey Road (Remastered) sounded - whether it was that trace of vinyl style 'warmth' within the recording, or some extra depth, the quality of the bass (which has always been lacking on the CD editions of most Beatles albums), or that 'really hearing it for the first time feel'. It was certainly a fine sounding record in its own right! I really did get that feeling of hearing it for the first time despite having the original 1987 release CD version in my library... I was actually smiling to myself much of the time as I listened to the details of Ringo's drumming, or was able to clearly pick out the distinct guitars in the more 'rock' orientated tracks... I even noticed Paul's little chuckle in the middle of verse 2 of Maxwell's Silver Hammer - believe it or not I've never really noticed it before (even though you can hear it on the '87 release) - it sounds so alive and you can actually hear him holding back the giggle at the end (like he's got that little niggle to burst into laughter over something...)
I immediately listened to the album a couple of times end to end and then played around with some of the settings and if the sound I was hearing is indicative of the reproduction on all the albums then it's a fantastic effort. The bass was just wonderful IMO - to me the Beatles often have sounded thin or lacking depth on many discs, the bass is just missing from the soundstage, and here on the new version there is no sign of that - its great to have really full deep bass, while still having strong forward guitars and clear distinct vocals as well - I can tell you I was smiling the whole way through the album the second & third times I listened as well.
I dragged out my 1987 copy - and its a genuine original eighties copy - and although it sounded okay it just didn't quite sound the same - I skipped through a few key tracks and it still just had that lack of depth - not that it's 2-Dimensional, but just that the sound stage is shallower, and it's a bit lifeless on the '87 CD. Sound level too is distinctly lower than the new remaster, as noted in the Pitch Fork Music review, and they have increased the level on the remastered version but without any obvious clipping or other destruction common on modern rock albums, and have not attempted to scrub out the tape hiss and other natural background noise found on the original studio master tapes (as this would degrade the sound quality of the music as well)... The original CD release just sounds a little less chirpy or alive compared to the new 2009 remaster.
Update (26 September 2009): Having now listened to the album several times over a couple of weeks on my main system (Musical Fidelity A3.2 CDP, Kimber Silverstreak Interconnects, Plinius 9200 Amp, Slinkylinks Speaker Cables, & Chario Constellation Speakers) I've come to the conclusion that the differences between the original CD and the new remasters are mostly pretty subtle - the higher range stuff is clearer and more distinct (you can hear what almost sounds like the individual bristles of a snare drum stick/brush in Maxwell's Silver Hammer striking a cymbal or high-hat or something where as it's a bit nondescript or blurred on the original CD and lacks that fineness of detail). The remaster involves you more and holds your attention - listening to the original '87 one your mind tends to wander and lose attention - and it seems a more forward presentation - I like the sense of almost sitting in the studio with the Beatles that the remaster gives... (Note: as always when doing AB Comparisons on my main set up I used a Sound Meter to help adjust volume levels to equalise the recording levels - I found the new remaster's sound level around 20db higher than the original).
This new remaster is clearly an evolutionary step not a revolutionary one - the changes and/or improvements are mostly subtle or something only an audiophile may perhaps notice or be able to quantify - but it's the overall impact where this has an effect and in my opinion it's a positive (i.e. the effect is more than the sum of the parts). If you are dedicated Beatles fan you obviously will feel you have to have these. But what if you aren't, well if you like the Beatles and are an audiophile then I believe it's pretty much required, if you do but aren't then it's gonna be a question of how important the Beatles are to you... If you like them a lot you'll probably appreciate the new discs, if like me you are a Beatles fan and/or an Audiophile, and you don't have an existing comprehensive collection of Beatles albums then again they are probably a must buy. However if you are a casual listener, or not a particular Beatles fan, or have a full collection of the 1987 CD's (or even earlier Vinyl) you may find the difference is not dramatic enough to warrant the investment, or at least may want to buy 1 album you already have to compare the difference before investing in more - but I'd certainly recommend the remasters and suspect most people who listen will appreciate the difference.
This album is an essential purchase if you are a Beatles fan - There is an obvious list of the essential items to get a set if you are a true fan to get the basic 14 albums:
- The Beatles Mono Box Set (First 10 Albums & the 2CD Mono Masters)
- Yellow Submarine (Remastered) (Stereo)
- Abbey Road (Remastered) (Stereo)
- Let It Be (Remastered) (Stereo)
However some of the Stereo Albums are looking like being superior to the Mono (and Stereo) versions in the White Mono Box Set, and you may end up wanting to get one, some, or all of these Stereo Versions as well (or instead of the Mono Box Set) - there will be plenty of debate over the following months as to which of these are better in Stereo and which aren't - in some cases it may even be a tie, with one reviewer suggesting purists may want a mix of mono & stereo tracks to form a composite `album':
- Help! (Remastered) (Stereo)*
- Rubber Soul (Remastered) (Stereo)*
- Revolver (Remastered) (Stereo)
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Remastered) (Stereo)+
- Magical Mystery Tour (Remastered) (Stereo)+
- The White Album (Remastered) (Stereo)+
- A Hard Day's Night (Remastered) (Stereo)
- Past Masters (Remastered) (Stereo)#
* These are my initial picks as essential Stereo versions to have alongside the Mono Box - although there is a lot of debate over these 2 earlier albums Help! & Rubber Soul as they have the original 1960's Stereo versions included on the Mono Discs (so that's 3 different versions total) and the Stereo CD versions are actually George Martin's Stereo remix from 1987 remastered! I suspect I may eventually add titles such as "Revolver"; "A Hard Day's Night"; and perhaps "The White Album" later to my 'Stereo' selection.
+ There is some division over whether the Mono or Stereo versions are better for these 3 Albums - at present I like the Mono. Regardless it's unlikely you'll want the Stereo versions of "Please Please Me"; "With The Beatles"; and "Beatles For Sale" - unless you opt for the Stereo Box Set of course.
# The Mono Masters in the box set has a differing set of recordings for many tracks, so having the Remastered "Past Masters", and the included "Mono Masters".
As a final note, if you don't have the modified Yellow Submarine (1999) album you might want to get it - it's suggested it features better remastered mixes than any of the new 2009 Remasters of both Eleanor Rigby and Yellow Submarine (the engineering of this album was overseen by the surviving Beatles at the time) and it also has several other tracks with almost as good alternate remasters to these new releases.
Abbey Road (Remastered) Poster
The classic original Beatles studio albums have been re-mastered by a dedicated team of engineers at Abbey Road Studios in London over a four year period utilising state of the art recording technology alongside vintage studio equipment, carefully maintaining the authenticity and integrity of the original analogue recordings. The result of this painstaking process is the highest fidelity the Beatles catalogue has seen since its original release.
Within each CD's new packaging, booklets include detailed historical notes along with informative recording notes. For a limited period, each CD will also be embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. The newly produced mini-documentaries on the making of each album, directed by Bob Smeaton, are included as QuickTime files on each album. The documentaries contain archival footage, rare photographs and never-before-heard studio chat from The Beatles, offering a unique and very personal insight into the studio atmosphere.
Beatles Photos
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The Beatles Merchandise
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The Beatles Rock Band
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More from The Beatles
 The Beatles Mono Box Set [LIMITED EDITION] |  The Beatles Stereo Box Set |  The Beatles [USB] [LIMITED EDITION] |
The Beatles' last days as a band were as productive as any major pop phenomenon that was about to split. After recording the ragged-but-right Let It Be, the group held on for this ambitious effort, an album that was to become their best-selling. Though all four contribute to the first side's writing, John Lennon's hard-rocking, "Come Together" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" make the strongest impression. A series of song fragments edited together in suite form dominates side two; its portentous, touching, official close ("Golden Slumbers"/"Carry That Weight"/"The End") is nicely undercut, in typical Beatles fashion, by Paul McCartney's cheeky "Her Majesty," which follows. --Rickey Wright
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