Beatles for Sale

This review applies to Sept 9, 2104 vinyl mono releases only. I've waited 35 years or more for new issues of pure analog Beatles on vinyl. No digital manipulation, or any manipulation, just music from original analog tapes to LP's. After years and years of disappointing digital releases and digitally modified vinyl, I thought this day would never come. I actually gave up buying music for a 20 year span. Based on listening to these new all analog mono LP's, I have found these Lp's have very little noise, if any, sound fantastic, and the pure analog sound is as good or better sounding than original Capital/EMI/Apple releases, in my opinion. No harsh compressed sound, no 2 dimensional sound, no digitally remastered sound transferred to vinyl, and no more dashed hopes in DVD Audio and SACD. These LP's sound fantastic.Like many Beatles fans, I grew up listening to them in the 60's. They made a violent and polarizing time in America more bearable. In the 60's, I bought and played their LP's until they were damaged beyond repair. I bought into digital music in the 80's only to find that it paled in comparison to pure analog. I should have bought more pure analog LP's while I had the chance, but, thought the medium was gone, whether I liked it or not. Finally I found vintage equipment (Sansui 6700 Receiver, Marantz Model 6300 Turntable, and JBL S312BE Speakers) and set out to spend mega money on EBAY for sealed analog LP's from the 60's and 70's. Unfortunately, many albums made in the 70's were made of cheap thin vinyl and were often warped or had defects/noise when new and right out of the package, but, I persevered and have a good collection of Beatles and other pure Analog LP's and some 45's.You don't have to spend Mega money, however, as these mono releases are superb in quality and sound. There is very little noise, often none between songs. The LP's are flat as they are 180 grams, and most importantly these LP's sound warm and beautiful. I just sat back, closed my eyes and let the music and harmonizing soothe my soul. I did not buy the box set for $375. I bought each individually. This along with a $40 reduction for applying for a credit card brought the total to about $250, and if you get a defective album, you can send it back instead of the whole box.Remember though, "Let it Be" and "Abbey Road" are not included in the box set as they were only made in stereo. Capital US releases like "The Beatles Again" and "Beatles 65" won't be there either, but, you will find those songs in these mono releases anyway.Thank you Apple/EMI/Optimal Media (Germany) for giving audiophiles what they've wanted for so many years. You did good.

Everything is perfect on this record! It is one of my favorites and a truly underrated album!

Before i say anything about this mono vinyl release, I want to say that I seriously cherish this album. Through the many phases of my life, i have loved and listened to every album of theirs quite thoroughly. That being said i consider this their most underrated album, and if over the past few years you asked me to name a "favorite" Beatles album; Even though i consider that a silly question i would probably answer with something like "I've tended to never tire of listening to Beatles For Sale more than any of their other albums." Even though i always considered the songs they cover to be far worse songs than any McCartney, Lennon, or Harrison original, and this album is full of covers, it has my all time favorite Beatles cover, Words of Love. The harmonies are unstoppable and George actually expanded on the original Holly riff, making it slightly more difficult to play. Now i bought the stereo vinyl release of Beatles For Sale that came out in 2012, and loved it. Most of my favorite memories listening to his album have been from that vinyl. Even though the mono format is definitely dominant for their early albums, and in reality most of their songs, I really do think this album and A Hard Days Night sound great if not better in Stereo. I'm not crazy either, you can read about the process that George Martin went through when putting this album and Days Night through the stereo process. I think Please Please Me & With The Beatles and Rubber Soul were trashed in Stereo. Trashed being a relative term, because over all every single Beatles release in the past decade sounds great, it truly is all about the music. Between mono and stereo it goes in to each persons preference and there are a million arguments about what the artists "originally intended" The mono version of Beatles For Sale is great, i would never say otherwise. The stereo version of Beatles For Sale is great. If i had to choose one i may choose the stereo version, but since it happens to be one of my favorite albums of all time, i bought both. Also "I'll Follow The Sun" sounds better in mono.

For Beatle fans