Streaming media gets bigger and bigger, and someone's always ready to pronounce the compact disc dead, so I gave in and bought the mono box when I had the chance. Thing is, as much as I loved the Beatles growing up, eventually I got burned out on them. Of that era, I still enjoy listening to the Beach Boys, but I kinda cooled on the Beatles for a while.
Well, I guess enough time has gone by, because it was fun to hear the old albums again, with the added bonus of the audible kick from the mono mixes. And these are the original British versions, not the truncated US versions, though it is weird to listen to "With the Beatles" (US: "Meet the Beatles") and not hear "I Want to Hold Your Hand" and "She Loves You". (Those tracks and other British singles are rounded up on a special 2-CD compilation in the box.)
These were remastered in 2009, and remastered again last year for vinyl. There are a few subtle differences I hear -- "Fool on the Hill" is shorter, for instance, and the liner notes point out how the stereo mix is different from the mono mix, but for the most part these are the albums I remember growing up with. I mentioned once when I was book-talking to middle school students years ago, and how they all complained about waiting for the latest Harry Potter book. Ah yes, I said, I felt the same way waiting for the latest Beatles album back in the day. (Whatever, Gramps!) I tried to explain that the anticipation was actually part of the fun -- when you can walk into a bookstore now (what's that again, Gramps?) and pick up every single HP book in paperback at one go, it's just not the same.
And we really did anxiously await each new Beatles album, each one the latest dispatch from the coolest band in the world.
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