Well, I managed to talk my wife into letting me have this gift a few weeks early... And I'm glad I did. After all the hype, I have to admit I was concerned of being disappointed, but after 26 tracks I wanted more! I have been listening to the Beatles for over 20 years, but this 5.1 mix made me feel like I had just put the needle to Sgt. Pepper for the first time.
The Mr.Kite/I want you/Helter Skelter track blew my mind.
@: I love every bit of it with the exception that I think the helter skelter lyrics should have moved instead of being head on. The whole "I Want You" ending makes me feel like all of the sound is whirling around me, but then there are the stationary vocals which kind of threw me off. I think they should have been slowly, but constantly panned around the room. Or maybe just from a different area or the room every time. I suppose some would call that "novelty" surround, but that's what I would have preferred.
When the Strawberry Fields track began I was a little disappionted as I love the original mix and that's what I was looking forward to hearing in 5.1. But as the song went on and I started hearing more and more of the original mix, I loved the way it seemed to build up from nothing! I was hoping for the same thing from While My Guitar Gently Weeps, but no such luck. I'm sorry, but a song about a guitar weeping, without a guitar, just isn't the same to me. I have to disagree with the Martins on that one. I Am the Walrus was everything I had hoped for, and Lady Madonna is quite possibly better than the original. Don't get upset with me, I said possibly! And I loved the bass in Within You Without You/ Tomorrow Never Knows. A pleasant suprise for sure!
Aside from what I mentioned above, there are a few other things that bother me... A few times throughout the disc it felt like they were trying to see how many song snippets they could cram in to one. It just made things too busy. Also, there are a few places where the parts of other songs they used sounded out of key and very distracting. Like they just didn't fit. I guess that's what they were going for(??), but I could have done without it.
It's very hard for me to NOT give this a 10. If it had been the originals remixed with only a little tweeking, I would have given it an 11. But for the fact that there are some areas that I find distracting, and that I think Giles Martin tried a little too hard on the "Beatles in a blender" segments (with 10 to 15 different songs crammed into 30 seconds of disc), I'm going to have to give this one a 9. I'd give it a 9.5 if it were possible, but not a perfect 10.
The Mr.Kite/I want you/Helter Skelter track blew my mind.
@: I love every bit of it with the exception that I think the helter skelter lyrics should have moved instead of being head on. The whole "I Want You" ending makes me feel like all of the sound is whirling around me, but then there are the stationary vocals which kind of threw me off. I think they should have been slowly, but constantly panned around the room. Or maybe just from a different area or the room every time. I suppose some would call that "novelty" surround, but that's what I would have preferred.When the Strawberry Fields track began I was a little disappionted as I love the original mix and that's what I was looking forward to hearing in 5.1. But as the song went on and I started hearing more and more of the original mix, I loved the way it seemed to build up from nothing! I was hoping for the same thing from While My Guitar Gently Weeps, but no such luck. I'm sorry, but a song about a guitar weeping, without a guitar, just isn't the same to me. I have to disagree with the Martins on that one. I Am the Walrus was everything I had hoped for, and Lady Madonna is quite possibly better than the original. Don't get upset with me, I said possibly! And I loved the bass in Within You Without You/ Tomorrow Never Knows. A pleasant suprise for sure!
Aside from what I mentioned above, there are a few other things that bother me... A few times throughout the disc it felt like they were trying to see how many song snippets they could cram in to one. It just made things too busy. Also, there are a few places where the parts of other songs they used sounded out of key and very distracting. Like they just didn't fit. I guess that's what they were going for(??), but I could have done without it.
It's very hard for me to NOT give this a 10. If it had been the originals remixed with only a little tweeking, I would have given it an 11. But for the fact that there are some areas that I find distracting, and that I think Giles Martin tried a little too hard on the "Beatles in a blender" segments (with 10 to 15 different songs crammed into 30 seconds of disc), I'm going to have to give this one a 9. I'd give it a 9.5 if it were possible, but not a perfect 10.
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