The White Album, Remastered

Of course I'm listening to the new stereo mix of the White Album. You know me, folks! The Beatles did involve themselves heavily in the mixing process (at least from "Revolver" forward), but it was the mono mixes that took all their time and attention and were always done first. The stereo mixes were an afterthought, and were typically banged out in a couple of hours at some later date, by George Martin and the engineer. And because this would always represent an entirely new process (you can mix down from stereo to mono, but you can't do it the other way round) we often ended up with some very odd things. The most notorious of those would be the ending to "Helter Skelter" - the mono version, overseen by McCartney, doesn't have the track fade back in after the original fade-out, to conclude with Ringo's famous scream about the blisters on his fingers. That only happens on the stereo mix which was done three weeks later. Evidently Martin and Emerick had simply forgotten what they did on the original.

Giles Martin's work on the White Album isn't quite the stunning revelation his work on Sgt Pepper was last year - get it, now - but it's well worth while anyway. The sound seems crisper, especially the electric guitars, and it's startling to better hear some of the details on a record you've listened to for... well, for fifty freaking years. The piano on "Glass Onion," the acoustic guitar on "Piggies." It's the Beatles, it sounds great. What else do you need to know?