With The Beatles Remastered

The Beatles second UK LP (With The Beatles) is definitely not among my favorite Beatles albums, in fact it’s probably their worst album. But that isn’t to say I do not enjoy listening to it in it’s 2009 fabulous remastered form nor is it to say that this album doesn’t have any fine songs on it because because I definitely do and it definitely does.

I do think that when thinking only about the 8 Beatles originals on the album, it’s probably the worst selection of original songs the band ever released on an album (the very underrated Beatles For Sale (1964) has a much better collection of eight originals in my opinion) on the other hand, the covers on this album are quite good (superior to the covers on Beatles For Sale, which was their fourth album.)

My most favorite Beatles originals to listen to on the With The Beatles Remastered CDs (mono and stereo) are the first three songs. In particular I have been enjoying song #2 “All I’ve Got To Do” in mono. It sounds delicious.

Another song that has really been growing on me a bit is track #9, “Hold Me Tight.” Paul McCartney wrote and sang lead on this song and he’s dismissed it as being an album filler. And while the song is far from Paul’s best work, I do think it has a certain charm.

Among the cover songs I think “Till There Was You” is my favorite. It’s an extremely cheesy sickly sweet love song but I think in some strange way it works because of that. The LP’s last song, “Money” is a great way to end the record. When I listen closely to the remastered mono version I actually hear the song as much more unhinged than I realized. It rocks pretty darn hard.

In general I prefer the stereo versions when it comes to the 2009 Beatles remasters but I do think that this CD sounds a bit better in mono than in stereo.

Harold Donald Quesenberry loves the MusicByDay Music Blog because it has a lot of posts about The Beatles

Technorati Tags: 1963, British Invasion, Oldies