 "rubber soul remastered cd: 2009" | 2010-02-19 |
| - Reviewed By Dr. Feelgood from USA |
| The Beatles were on to something here, and well on their way to becoming the great songwriters and performers that they eventually became. Rubber Soul proves that with it's collection of well-crafted pop songs. |
| |
| "Talking 'bout the Mono version -- the essential "Rubber Soul" version" | 2010-01-21 |
| - Reviewed By a.k.a. Juan La Princi from livin' just enough |
It was an unexpected surprise when my wife and son presented me with the Mono Beatles remasters for my birthday earlier this month. I had always heard that the mono versions of many Beatles albums were considered to be better mixes, more what the band and producer George Martin intended and so forth. Plus, for every Beatles fan, it was hard not to notice the annoying distribution of instruments in some of the stereo releases, one plopped on the left, another on the right -- a particular liability in the iPod age when we hear so much music through ear buds, but bothersome even back in the LP era.
The Mono remasters are very good, but whether they are a superior listening experience to the stereo remasters is something that can only be answered on an album-by-album, and in some cases track-by-track basis. Some of it is also a matter of taste.
But one thing is, to me, undebatable. The mono version of "Rubber Soul" is the biggest revelation of the whole box set, and it should be the default version available for the ages.
The stereo separation was particularly problematic for "Rubber Soul," and now we can hear it was almost sabotage. Because the songs are so strong, fans loved it anyway and the album has always had a high reputation. But when you hear how it sounds in mono, you will realize you've been missing the intended experience, and have had to tolerate an inferior one.
"Rubber Soul" is a much bigger album than I knew. It had always seemed to be one of their quieter, lighter collections, and sonically a precursor to the "lo-fi" indie rock sound that started with REM. Forget all that. This album is every bit as powerful as "Revolver" or "Abbey Road." Not only does the remaster boost the hard-rocking sound of the more aggressive tunes like "Drive My Car" and "Run for Your Life," it also displays the richness of sound and large palette of musical colors you associate with their big production numbers from "Sgt. Pepper" or "Magical Mystery Tour."
I'm thinking in particular of "The Word." This was never a song I really focused on before. On the mono remaster, you realize what a big, multi-faceted recording this really was; full-bottomed with a driving beat, syncopated bass and propulsive piano, but dazzling on top with swirls of vocal harmonies and guitar sounds. Similarly, the classic song "In My Life," which always seemed kind of frail and gentle to me, turns out also to be much more explosive. And the more acoustic tunes, like "Michelle," "Norwegian Wood," and "I'm Looking Through You," sound much more fiery and urgent than before. I've always thought "Michelle" was just a sappy Macca love song -- no more. It's ingenious and complex and really satisfying.
The remastering obviously is one of the major reasons for the new dimensions of sound you can hear on "Rubber Soul." But I also think that, in this case, the effort to achieve stereo effects robbed the album of its muscularity, a problem that is corrected once and for all on the mono version.
As of now, you can only get the mono "Rubber Soul" in the box set. If you can, get the box set. There are lots of other reasons to own it: "Help!" and "Beatles for Sale" were clearly meant to be heard in mono, and you can make a strong case for the superiority of the mono mixes of "Sgt. Pepper" and "Revolver." It's great to hear some of the singles in mono again, like "We Can Work it Out," "Rain" and "Penny Lane" in mono. And the previously unheard mono version of the White Album is fascinating. That album was the first Beatles set that was recorded and mixed with stereo in mind from the beginning, but the mono versions of the harder-rocking songs like "Birthday," "Helter Skelter" and "Yer Blues" sound stronger to me.
But if the whole box set is too much, then at least keep an eye out for sales of used copies of mono "Rubber Soul." It's essential. |
| |
| "Way Ahead of Their Time" | 2010-01-06 |
| - Reviewed By Hi-Fi from Largo, Fl USA |
| Masterfully redone. Only wish they made a 24/96 version available. For a CD this is how it should be. |
| |
| "A tale of two B Sides" | 2010-01-05 |
| - Reviewed By Matthew Watters from Vietnam |
| The trans-Atlantic creative competition between the Beatles and the Beach Boys is legend, and I'll be darned if the British version of Rubber Soul doesn't suggest that the competition began with the March 1965 release of the Beach Boys' Today. That LP had an A-Side of poppy would-be singles and a B-Side that looked toward Brian Wilson's coming masterpiece of the following year, Pet Sounds. There, on the flipside of Today, Brian turned out five tunes of lushly sophisticated, highly introspective music that was head-and-shoulders above anything the Beach Boys had yet done, and check out the similar impact of the B-Side of Rubber Soul. From the chill-inducing effect of John Lennon drawing his breath through pursed lips on "Girl" through the dark emotional terrain of "I'm Looking Through You" to the melancholy of "In My Life," the B-Side of the British version of Rubber Soul was the most lyrically and musically sophisticated statement the Beatles had yet made over a sustained album side (and, arguably, ever would), and it clearly shadowed Wilson's achievement on Today. Brian Wilson has often said that he saw Rubber Soul, released later in 1965, as his challenge to better the Beatles with Pet Sounds, but the real story may be that the Beatles had already picked up Brian's thrown gauntlet. |
| |
| "The Best Pop Album Ever?" | 2010-01-05 |
| - Reviewed By matthew bradford from beaverton, or United States |
While "Revolver" has it's supporters (as well it should) for what my meager opinion's worth "Rubber Soul" is a notch above. After soaking in a little Dylan and maybe some Byrds, the Beatles mastered the folk-rock sound here to create nothing short of a masterpiece.
I like the lesser known (if there is such a thing) songs on this album such as: "You Won't See Me", I'm Looking Through You" and "If I Needed Someone"- a beautiful song from George, which showed he could compose alongside some of the best songwriters (Paul and John?) in the world.
I sometimes wonder if the Rolling Stones weren't just a little bit envious of their British counterparts as the Beatles music was far more universal in scope than theirs, having their material covered by classical singers as well as orchestras and appealing to Grandparents and Teenagers both. Not to take anything away from the "Stones" as a couple of my all-time favorites are: "Honky Tonk Woman" and "Beast of Burden". But the Beatles were, well...the Beatles.
Talk about getting your money's worth, back in 1965 you couldn't get more "bang for the buck"-and you still cant! |
| |
 ""There are places I remember."" | 2009-12-26 |
| - Reviewed By Adrenaline from Trumansburg, NY |
I've seen Rubber Soul marked as the time when the Beatles started really coming into their own as musicians, creating songs that went beyond simply ditties about love (although that's still a common theme), and beyond that, crafting cohesive albums and popularizing the idea that they could be more than a group of singles with some filler holding them together. It's only their second studio release featuring no cover songs, and for the most part the praise seems to hold true. While I don't think it's quite a great album, it's a very consistent song, it's just that the songs tend to be good to very good rather than outstanding. That's not to say that there aren't standouts, because there are, whether they be among the band's dozens of very famous radio hits or just damn good compositions that I'm hearing for the first time. It doesn't impress me quite like the other albums I've heard, but it's still darn good, especially when you remember this came out in 1965.
The song I'm most familiar with is "In My Life", which I remember best from being the theme song in covered form of Providence, a show my mom used to watch a lot. I didn't realize it was a Beatles song for a while, but that doesn't prevent it from holding up as a very nice, nostalgic little tune. "Drive My Car", with the most traditional rock sound on the album and some nice piano in the chorus, and "Nowhere Man" are the other ones I'm sure I've heard before. The other ones that stick out tend to be primarily Lennon's work, though McCartney's "Michelle" is very nice and the two Harrison songs make me continue to wonder why his presence was so limited on these albums. Not that much though, because he was working with, uh... Lennon and McCartney. "Norwegian Wood" has its own thing going for it, and I really like "Girl" a lot, and I especially think the way the backing vocals during the bridge are later mimicked by guitars is something of a stroke of genius. Rubber Soul is a really important release in the band's history, and a fairly enjoyable one as well. |
| |
![The Beatles - Rubber Soul [UK]](product_images/183000/183442-the-beatles-rubber-soul-uk.jpg)
International Available![Buy The Beatles - Rubber Soul [UK] for $10.90](images/merchant_logos/amazon.gif)
![The Beatles - Revolver [UK]](product_images/183000/183386_thumb.jpg)
![Beatles - Help! [UK]](product_images/227000/227651_thumb.jpg)
