This year both Storm and I will be listening to an album and writing up a review of it. Every day. There is no escape. The weird one is with box sets, where it's a disc a day but we'll cross that bridge when we get to it, righty right? I'll explain (make up, lol) the rules as I go along.
The Beatles – 1962-1966 (Red Album)
The Beatles Red Album was the first album I ever owned. It was a double LP compilation released in the early Seventies which covered the early works of the group and was paired off with the Blue Album which covered the interesting years of the band. I was eight years old or so and we were being taught to sing a handful of Beatles songs at school. Teaching kids to sing must be the worst aspect of teaching ever. I probably nagged dad into getting me this because it had all three of the songs I knew the words (and actions!) for. I don't know exactly where that tape is at the moment, so I stitched the running order together from the 2009 remasters.
The album is basically what it says on the box. It's the identical haircut era of the band playing HIT SINGLES from before they got weird. There are a few album tracks on here as well, which works in favour of the second disc far more than the first. The original album was a double, and continues to be even though it all fits on a single CD. The red and blue albums are probably the best compilation of the Beatles on CD. Remastered or not they sound better than 1, give a better overview of the development of the band due to the inclusion of album tracks, and includes all of the a-sides issued during the band's tenure.
As far as the musical content goes, not much needs to be said. I prefer most of the tracks in the context of the original albums, but I guess I've heard this so many times as it is it's tough to review this with new ears. The sequencing is good, the inclusion of All My Loving (not a single, but introduced a wide American market due to its performance on the Ed Sullivan Show) and a couple of the slower tracks make a nice change of pace. The record feels like an album rather than just a collection of popular songs is basically what I'm trying to say. I like blind nostalgia.
Favourite side (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Side_%28recording%29) is side 3. You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away and Norwegian Wood are the best example of the folk rock thing they were doing at the time and are the best examples of actual song writing on the album. Really all the second disc is missing is the other half of Rubber Soul. The album ends with Paperback Writer (weakest a side) followed by Eleanor Rigby (probably one of the weakest tracks from Revolver) and Yellow Submarine (kids song). Probably would have swapped them for Paperback and Rigby for Taxman and I’m Only Sleeping personally, but the closer serves as decent foreshadowing for the follow up album, so I guess they serve their purpose well enough.
Bitchy reviews are more interesting to read. Buy this instead of Beatles 1. 1 has poor sound quality, doesn’t even include all of the number ones released by the band (skips Please Please Me Strawberry Fields Forever, one of the best individual tracks by the band) and by design misses the album material which is generally where most of the best work is found. I fucking hate The Beatles 1.
EDIT: Storm added videos and I have no personality, so here you go
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI0Q8ytD44Y
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