Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band 2017 Stereo Mix

Released simultaneously with the rest of the 50th anniversary editions of The Beatles' most celebrated album, the Japanese exclusive super deluxe box set is the most comprehensive of all, featuring all the brand new audiovisual material, plus other exclusives, not available elsewhere. Along with all the contents of the international super deluxe box set, the Japanese box set exclusively comes with cardboard papers to set up a diorama (11 x 11 x 7cm), replicating the cover artwork (the design of these is different from the ones individually sold at stores). Furthermore, the box includes 2 mini gift cards, plus an A2-sized poster. More importantly, the 6 CDs inside the box are Super High Material discs ( SHM-CD format), offering to audiophiles even higher quality sound than normal CDs (SHM-CDs are played on a standard CD player). The lavish and info-packed 144-page hardback book is naturally included in the package. Since I have purchased both super deluxe box sets, I think I can safely say that the Japanese is the most precious, being the greatest collectible of the 2017 anniversary series a Beatle-maniac can get. It is, also, a limited release, making it even more special. It costs a little more than ¥19,000 (incl. p&p) when ordering from Japan, quite reasonable for what the item is. The product details below are meticulously typed by little old me straight from the listings in the box. Those who invest in any version of the box set, will be highly rewarded by the diligence employed towards assembling it; from the magnificent lenticular slipcase, to the newly refreshed original 4-track tapes audio, this is a premium package of one of the most influential and celebrated albums in the history of music. List of contents: CD 1: "Sgt. Pepper..." 2017 Stereo mix 1. Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band 2. With a little help from my friends 3. Lucy in the sky with diamonds 4. Getting better 5. Fixing a hole 6. She's leaving home 7. Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite! 8. Within you without you 9. When I'm sixty-four 10. Lovely Rita 11. Good morning good morning 12. Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band (Reprise) 13. A day in the life CD 2: Early takes from the sessions, sequenced in chronological order 1. Strawberry fields forever (Take 1) 2. Strawberry fields forever (Take 4) 3. Strawberry fields forever (Take 7) 4. Strawberry fields forever (Take 26) 5. Strawberry fields forever (Stereo mix - 2015) 6. When I'm sixty-four (Take 2) 7. Penny Lane (Take 6 - Instrumental) 8. Penny Lane (Vocal overdubs and speech) 9. Penny Lane (Stereo mix - 2017) 10. A day in the life (Take 1) 11. A day in the life (Take 2) 12. A day in the life (Orchestra overdub) 13. A day in the life (Hummed last chord) (Takes 8, 9, 10 and 11) 14. A day in the life (The last chord) 15. Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band (Take 1 - Instrumental) 16. Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band (Take 9 and speech) 17. Good morning good morning (Take 1 - Instrumental, Breakdown) 18. Good morning good morning (Take 8) CD 3: Early takes from the sessions, sequenced in chronological order 1. Fixing a hole (Take 1) 2. Fixing a hole (Speech and Take 3) 3. Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite! (Speech from before Take 1, Take 4 and speech at the end) 4. Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite! (Take 7) 5. Lovely Rita (Speech and Take 9) 6. Lucy in the sky with diamonds (Take 1 and speech at the end) 7. Lucy in the sky with diamonds (Speech, false start and Take 5) 8. Getting better (Take 1, Instrumental and speech at the end) 9. Getting better (Take 12) 10. Within you without you (Take 1 - Indian instruments only) 11. Within you without you (George coaching the musicians) 12. She's leaving home (Take 1 - Instrumental) 13. She's leaving home (Take 6 - Instrumental) 14. With a little help from my friends (Take 1 - False start and Take 2 - Instrumental) 15. Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band (Reprise) (Speech and Take 8) CD 4: "Sgt. Pepper..." + bonus tracks (All in mono mix) 1. Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band (Original mono mix) 2. With a little help from my friends (Original mono mix) 3. Lucy in the sky with diamonds (Original mono mix) 4. Getting better (Original mono mix) 5. Fixing a hole (Original mono mix) 6. She's leaving home (Original mono mix) 7. Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite! (Original mono mix) 8. Within you without you (Original mono mix) 9. When I'm sixty-four (Original mono mix) 10. Lovely Rita (Original mono mix) 11. Good morning good morning (Original mono mix) 12. Sgt. Pepper's lonely hearts club band (Reprise) (Original mono mix) 13. A day in the life (Original mono mix) 14. Strawberry fields forever (Original mono mix) 15. Penny Lane (Original mono mix) 16. A day in the life (Unreleased first mono mix) 17. Lucy in the sky with diamonds (Unreleased mono mix - No. 11) 18. She's leaving home (Unreleased first mono mix) 19. Penny Lane (Capitol Records US promo single - mono mix) Disc 5 (blu-ray) Audio features: - New 5.1 Surround Audio mixes of "Sgt. Pepper..." album and "Penny Lane", plus 2015 5.1 Surround mix of "Strawberry fields forever" (blu-ray: DTS HD Master Audio 5.1, Dolby True HD 5.1) - High Resolution 2017 Audio versions of "Sgt. Pepper..." album and "Penny Lane", plus 2015 "Strawberry fields forever" (all in stereo mix) (blu-ray: LPCM Stereo 96KHz/24bit) Video features: - The making of "Sgt. Pepper..." (Restored 1992 documentary film, previously unreleased) - Promotional films: "A day in the life", "Strawberry fields forever", "Penny Lane" (4K restored) Disc 6 (DVD) Audio features: - New 5.1 Surround Audio mixes of "Sgt. Pepper..." album and "Penny Lane", plus 2015 5.1 Surround mix of "Strawberry fields forever" (DVD: DTS Dolby Digital 5.1) - High Resolution 2017 Audio versions of "Sgt. Pepper..." album and "Penny Lane", plus 2015 "Strawberry fields forever" (all in stereo mix) (DVD: LPCM Stereo) Video features: - The making of "Sgt. Pepper..." (Restored 1992 documentary film, previously unreleased) - Promotional films: "A day in the life", "Strawberry fields forever", "Penny Lane" (4K restored)

True to form, Amazon seems to have thrown reviews for different releases of this album under the same product link. The link that I'm writing this review under seems to be for the 2009 single-CD reissue/remaster, since that's apparently what I received when I ordered under this link (and I'm fine with that, since, believe it or not, this Beatlemaniac didn't already have it!). Why it is described by Amazon as a "Limited Edition," I'm not sure, unless it has, or could possibly have, the digital "mini-documentary" that was on certain copies (including the one I got). I don't know many of the other reviews here may be for this particular remaster. In '66, after six U.K. albums and a number of U.K. singles (I'm not counting U.S. Beatles releases here), the Beatles began to get more adventurous with their music, and started concentrating less heavily on "love songs." These two factors would result in their most "interesting" recordings (on that year's Revolver album and elsewhere). On the Revolver album (and also on the "Yellow Submarine"/"Eleanor Rigby" single [both of those songs also appeared on Revolver] and the "Paperback Writer"/"Rain" single), the Fab Four started to show that they were capable of doing more than songs on romantic interpersonal relationships. (O.K., not ALL of the songs they had done until then were love songs, but most of them could be considered as such.) However, while the Beatles (particularly John Lennon, with songs like the slightly psychedelic "Rain" and the VERY psychedelic "Tomorrow Never Knows") showed signs of moving away (or mostly away) from the old "formula" in '66, it was the following year's album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (and the single "Strawberry Fields Forever"/"Penny Lane") that demonstrated that they were REALLY changing things up. The lyrics, the instrumentation, the arrangements, the recording techniques... by hardly any means could you call the album (or the single, especially "Strawberry Fields") "normal." Even the cover of the album was very ambitious and unusual, with the Beatles presenting themselves in the guise of "Sgt. Pepper's band" against a backdrop of an "audience" of celebrities (or rather, cardboard cut-outs thereof), which included the Fab Four themselves! With this album, the first rock 'n' roll "concept album" was born (or if it wasn't THE first one, it was one of the first ones). However, the "concept" doesn't really seem to extend to the actual recordings, aside from the title song and the reprise of it. There are just too many different kinds of sounds and "styles," and far too many sets of lyrics and lyrical ideas that don't go together with any of the others, for most of the songs to really seem "related" in any way. Reportedly, even John Lennon said that (to quote Brandon Toropov in his book [which I kind of doubt is really well-known] Who Was Eleanor Rigby? And 908 More Questions And Answers About The Beatles, first published in I think '97) "the only real unifying theme on the album, other than the open-ended idea of a fictional band, was the reprise of the title song that appears near the end of the album." (That quote may not be EXACTLY word-for-word.) It's kind of ironic that the album that (largely if not entirely on its own) ushered "concept albums" into the world of music (or at least the world of rock 'n' roll music) really didn't HAVE too much of a concept! Whatever the (supposed) "concept" behind it, this is a "classic" album, and deservedly so. While no singles were released from it, the album was enough of a "masterpiece" to not NEED any released from it. (However, one of the songs on it, the pleasant, Ringo-sung "With A Little Help From My Friends," would become a hit for Joe Cocker.) All of the album's tracks are good, and have something (often more than one thing) to make them interesting and in many cases quirky (in good ways); some of them are: the mock-"live" sound of the title song and the reprise; the subtle (and "dirty") lyrical joke in "With A Little Help" ("I can't tell you but I know it's mine"); the whole of "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds" (reportedly not actually inspired by LSD but by a drawing that John's son made); the surprising (and, reportedly according to John, autobiographical) confession of wife-beating in "Getting Better"; the strings-only (ala "Eleanor Rigby") arrangement of the backing for "She's Leaving Home"; the "circus" sound of "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite!" (reportedly inspired by an old circus poster); the "Indian" sounds on George Harrison's song "Within You Without You"; Paul McCartney's sped-up vocal on "When I'm Sixty-Four"; the sound effects on "Good Morning Good Morning"; the lyrics (inspired in part by news stories) and orchestral "crescendos" on "A Day In The Life"... and those aren't all. And of all of the songs, only "Lovely Rita," "Sixty-Four," and maybe "With A Little Help" can be considered (loosely, anyway, in one or two of those cases) love songs. As for the sound of this reissue, I'm very satisfied with it. I think it does sound better than the original '80s CD reissue. In fact, I prefer this '09 remaster (and for that master, the '80s remaster) of the album's original stereo mix to the 2017 remastered and remixed stereo reissue, which to my ears suffered, more than benefitted, from the attempt to "modernize" the mix. One major change they made, that I don't really like, was "centering" the lead vocals that weren't that way on the original stereo mix; I don't know if anyone else feels this way, but I personally think that those vocals being "uncentered" is one of the things that make the album interesting and contribute to many of the songs' quirkiness (especially in the case of John's vocal on "A Day In The Life," which "travels" from right to left as the song progresses). I would definitely rate the 2017 reissue lower (by at least one star) than this one, which I give 5 stars. As a side note, I think the Magical Mystery Tour album (which wasn't actually a full album originally) on a CD with Sgt. Pepper (I think both albums would fit onto it), in their original stereo mixes, would make an awesome Beatles release; the two albums would complement each other perfectly, in my opinion!

Awesome sounding cd!!

One reviewer wrote at the time of "Sgt. Pepper's" release was that it was a moment in pop music where black and white turned into color. It's that pronounced a record in the annals of musical history. And despite pushing the boundries with their 2 previous discs "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver," with "Sgt. Pepper" it's a different level altogether--all the way down to the then innovative cover design. Though in theory it's a concept album, the Beatles themselves disavowed that later. It certainly starts that way with the title track: "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" which even sounds light years from what they did barely 10 months ago. All the instruments seem to have a sharper defined tonal quality that made previous records seem almost dated. McCartney's bass, for example, is so much more hilighted in the mix it's almost as if he's playing a lead bass on some songs. This cut leads right into the Ringo sung "With a Little Help From My Friends." Ringo is finally given a proper song to sing, instead of a cornball country tune or some novelty song or a Lennon/McCartney throwaway. The songs theme is Ringo's persona and he easily wins us over with his self effacing performance. Super job. "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" shows John's gift of wordplay never deserting him---even in psychedelia. In fact, it's never been better. "Getting Better," inspired by temporary tour replacment drummer Jimmy Nichol, is a superb song featuring a light/dark side of the Beatles: the verses shimmering with optimism and great Beatle harmonies give way to the middle filled with a heaviness and pessimism. It's this give and take that give the song it's excellence. "Fixing a Hole" would be my choice for underrated gem on this disc. For Paul, the words are outstanding and the electric guitar which echoes the meleody line, hold the song together really well. While being a good song, "Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite" taken away from "Pepper" doesn't really stand on it's own. It's a great marriage of music and words however. You can literally feel the circus in the song. "She's Leaving Hone" showcases the Beatles(always) superb vocal harmonics to their best abilites. The voices just blend with the orchestration. "When I'm 64" is Paul doing his old-time shtick. Here it's sublime as he hits all the right spots, especially the clarinets wistfully playing over Ringo's shuffle as Paul sings the woes of aging. Paul would do this type of song again many times in his career but never as good as here. "Within You, Without You" is George's contribution to this set. And although it's not as commercially accesible as his previous Indian("Love You To")song, the words are far more spiritual. Next comes "Lovely Rita" which is probably the purest pop number on this disc so far, even with the honky-tonk pianio. After everything you've listened to up to his point it's very welcome. "Good Morning, Good Morning" features Sounds Incorporated on horns blasting John Lennon's televison based song forward. Listen for Ringo's inspired drumming under the mix. "Sgt. Pepper's (reprise) is a super gap filler. Faster and more stripped down than the title track, its exuberance puts you at the somber door of "A Day in the Life." "A Day in the Life" could be the crowning achievment of their career. A mini-opera fueled by Lennon's imaginative words and George Martin's rising and falling orchestration and brought thunderously home by Ringo's timpani- like drums. It's one of those rare times that music can leave you breathless when it's over. Deserving of every accolade given, it's a masterpiece. And pretty much can be said about the album.

Not only was Sargeant Peppers one of the greatest albums ever released but it also proved at a time when The Beatles were thought to be finished - dried up and all out of ideas - they were just getting started. The drama surrounding this album couldn't have been scripted any better if it had been a full length feature film. Take a rock band which had become the biggest and best of all time and had the world at its' young feet. Every album that they put out was critically and generally accepted as important with every song on each a gem in and of itself. Add to that the incredible cultural influence The Beatles had on the world and I do mean the entire world. They were bigger than life itself. There was so much press on this band constantly from the beginnings of Beatlemania right on up to the eve of Sargeant Pepper's release. It seems as though by the time the lull between The Beatles' last release (Revolver) and their then future release of Sargeant Peppers had extended itself, everyone was pretty much listening for the fall. You know the adage: the bigger they are the harder they fall? Rumours were spreading that The Beatles didn't have any more ideas. The logic was that no one could sustain the kind of career these 'boys' had sustained for that long and still have anything new or worthwhile to say. The rumours were helped by the long silence from The Beatles after Revolver. It did seem like aeons at the time, since they had released Revolver and given their prodigious production through the years, it just wasn't like them to "slow up" like that. In retrospect, McCartney claims that he had relished the press comments about The Beatles being finished and dried up, etc. at the time. This because he of course, was privy to what The Beatles were doing in the studio and the direction they were taking. Indeed, his personal attitude was, 'just you wait'. Of course, history tells us that The Beatles were far from being dried up and the praises which followed its release were astounding. Again the band that had changed life for everyone in the world, especially the young, were doing it again. Sargeant Peppers was the work of a very confident (maybe even cocky) band who refused to allow themselves to become prisoners of their own successes. So many could have and would have lived on their laurels having had one tenth the success these guys experienced. And quite frankly, it could have been justified if they had. However, The Beatles was a living, breathing, and growing organism the entire time of their existence. When they couldn't grow anymore, they imploded and that implosion served their position in history very well. They never became the parodies of themselves that it would have been so easy to become. They came, they sang, they went! Sargeant Peppers was another hallmark album in the string of those already achieved by the band and those which were still unborn but coming. If you haven't yet, you must. Don't miss out on what is still an incredibly enjoyable, wonderful album full of some of the greatest songs ever written. Again, like all things Beatles, there are no throwaway songs on this album.

"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" may not have been the first "concept album" -- the Beach Boys' unreleased "Smile" and the Pretty Things' "S.F. Sorrow" arguably got there first. (And Franz Schubert predated all of them 140 years earlier with his album-length song cycles "Die schone Mullerin" and "Winterreise"). But characteristically, the Beatles' magnum opus went farther and further than the others, expanding the boundaries of what constituted popular music. Forty-two years after its original release and what seems like a century's worth of deification, SPLHCB still sounds fresh, ground-breaking and amazingly unpretentious -- and tightly constructed in comparison to some of the excesses that would come along in the 1970s. Aside from the SPLHCB tracks that were recycled for the 1968 "Yellow Submarine" movie and thus appear on the 1999 "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" release, I've never heard this album in digital format before now. I never thought to pick this up in its 1987 CD incarnation, because having known this record since childhood, for many years I had fallen out of love with it, buying into the idea that this was a wildly overpraised relic of the "Summer of Love." It's just as well that I didn't acquire that earlier CD version, because the sound of the '87 releases was thin and harsh, and SPLHCB has always deserved first-class sonic treatment. Which it gets here, allowing the formerly skeptical listener to re-hear it with new ears. It's idle to pretend that this record "sounds like it was recorded yesterday," as some reviewers breathlessly proclaim; dozens of circa-1967 tracks crammed onto a 4-track tape ain't gonna be confused with a modern production. But it does shine like the proverbial old painting that has been scrubbed clean of grime. And one of the macro-details that comes through in this remastering is the handmade quality of those dense, complex arrangements: all the more dazzling for being just a tad more fallible and "human" than a clinically perfect studio job of today. On first listen to this CD, I followed the "original" order, as mentioned in the liner notes, of the seven songs that constituted Side 1 of the LP (i.e., "SPLHCB"/"With a Little Help from My Friends" followed by "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," "Fixing a Hole," "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds," "Getting Better" and "She's Leaving Home"). Much as I wanted to believe that the original sequencing would be more effective, I can't say it did much for me, although "She's Leaving Home" as a side-closer works well. This record, after all, is the end product of many, many revisions and "let's try this instead" second thoughts; the re-ordering of the Side 1 tracks is just one of them. And kudos to George Martin or whoever came up with the revised order of the first seven tracks as finally released; it flows better musically.

The most astonishing pop music of the 20th century bar none. The 30th anniversary edition also includes a 2nd CD that has alternative backing tracks of the songs as well as complete versions of Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane. Brilliant, simply Brilliant.

I just finished listening to this new remix for the third time and while there is much to like here and overall it is preferable to the original stereo mixes it misses the mark in many places. The ambience of the album is changed noticeably throughout and it seems Giles Martin wanted to focus on the sound of the band. Yes the drums are more defined and the rhythm guitars are more pronounced but often at the cost of other things in the arrangement. The horns on Sgt Pepper and Good Morning Good Morning sit further back in the mix where they dominate on both original mono and stereo mixes of the album. As pointed out in the notes many of the original mixes in mono were varispeeded up a semitone with the exception of Lovely Rita which was a semitone down. I always thought the reason for the varispeed was that it improved the intonation in McCartney's voice particularly on She's Leaving Home and When I'm 64. Giles decided to stay in the home keys here as were on the original stereo mixes but the intonation has clearly been enhanced (Melodyne?) the result is a better sounding performance without having to speed up the tape. She's Leaving Home never sounded better than it does here . Lovely Rita sounds more jaunty like a Ray Davies story song. It is a significant improvement. Lucy in The Sky With Diamonds is brilliant here. A stereo mix that is truly informed by the original mono mix. Where the album is weaker such as the opening track and With A Little Help From My Friends they were much better on The Yellow Submarine Songtrack from 1999. I'm not sure what Martin was going for on Within You and Without You. He certainly plays up his father's string arrangement but the percussion has lost its percussiveness on this track and just about any previous mix is preferable to this one. Last but not least is A Day In The Life arguably the most accomplished track from The Beatles progressive period. It would be hard to draw a mustache on this masterpiece but alas Giles Martin almost accomplishes that feat. Lennon's expressive acoustic rhythm guitar is relegated to the background in this remix. Where John literally hits his guitar strings for emphasis on the original recording it is nowhere as dramatic in this mix. The vocal ahhhhhhs in the transition back to the final verse is way up in this mix and includes a couple of notes dodged in all former mixes - it adds nothing to the song. Probably the best mix of this song is on the Love album that George Martin did a few years back. The song isn't ruined by this alternative mix but it does make you want to pull out the other versions. The Beatles catalog from Rubber Soul on is ripe for remixing especially because each stage of the recording process was apparently preserved at EMI making it possible to go back to first generation recordings to remix. It is something that should be done. When any set of ears sets about to mix an album it is ultimately a subjective thing and different ears produce different results. It is a daunting task to take on remixing what many regard, myself included, as the greatest pop/rock album of all time. The results here are mostly good with Lucy, She's Leaving Home, Getting Better, Fixing A Hole and Lovely Rita as astounding and Without You Without You and A Day in The Life as audible disappointments. It is still worth owning but not definitive.