Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

For those of you who have been waiting breathlessly for Capitol Records' infamous "Duophonic" (fake stereo) versions of the Beatles' catalog to appear on CD, well has Capitol got a treat for you! "The Capitol Albums Vol. 1" contains the first four of Capitol Records' Beatles' albums (well, their first four music releases, as the 2-LP documentary "The Beatles' Story" came out on Capitol before "Beatles '65"...) Yep, these are the reverb-laden Capitol mixes we all grew up with! For good or bad, this is what most of us remember. They're not the Beatles' albums as the Beatles envisioned them, but so what? They are a lot of fun to listen to! So, what's good? Well, you get both the stereo and mono mixes of each album. When the Beatles' catalog was released on CD in 1987, only mono mixes of the first four albums were made available. This release is therefore the only place where you can get stereo mixes (albeit *reverb-laden* stereo mixes...). What's more, the sound quality is much better than the sound quality of the many "Capitol albums" bootlegs that have been on the market for years. It's great to have discs mastered from the original tapes! (Although, there is a glitch / dropout 18 seconds into the stereo version of "Don't Bother Me"...) So, what's bad? That's easy! The packaging *really* stinks! So, how is the packaging lousy? Well, the discs are inside small "reproductions" of the original jackets that aren't 100% faithful to the originals (compare them to your old LP's to see for yourself). The CDs themselves are also put into the jackets without any sort of protective inner sleeves. (There is a reason why records used to have protective inner sleeves! Unprotected records / CDs are easily scratched!) The CDs fall out very easily, so great care must be used when opening the set. The CD jackets are also quite shoddy looking with fuzzy printing and mismatched folds. Capitol should have spent more care in creating true "Mini LP" sleeves for this release. If bootleggers can create 100% accurate sleeve reproductions, then why can't Capitol/Apple? Most of you will want to stop reading here. But, for you hardcore Beatle collectors out there, there's more! These really *are* the original Capitol masters! The stereo version of "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" *has* the strange noise in the vocal channel before the singing starts! The mono version of "When I Get Home" *has* the alternate vocal line! The mono version of "Any Time At All" *has* the mixed down piano during the instrumental break! For those of us who need to have all the known mixes, you *will* find the original Capitol mixes here! And, even though Capitol's "Duophonic" (fake stereo) mixes are infamous, the fact is Capitol only really used them when true stereo mixes weren't available. These are the only songs in Duophonic: Meet The Beatles - I Want To Hold Your Hand, This Boy The Beatles' Second Album - You Can't Do That, I'll Get You, She Loves You Something New - (all are true stereo) Beatles `65 - She's A Woman, I Feel Fine One final note: The Japanese version of this title (on the Toshiba / EMI label) has slightly larger packaging, complete with nicely printed inner jackets and inner sleeves to put the CDs in. But, the Japanese release also contains "Copy Controlled" CDs, so that set isn't perfect either...)