Beatles - Past Masters (2012) [180-gram EU Vinyl Remaster]

Artist: The Beatles
Album: Past Masters

Year of Release: 2012
Country: European Union
Label: Apple
Catalogue number: 6994351
Matrix codes: 5099969943515 | 3A00180-01 A2 // 5099969943515 | 3A00180-01 B1 // 5099969943515 | 3A00180-02 C1 // 5099969943515 | 3A00180-02 D1



Disc 1
 
[Tracklisting]
1. Love Me Do* 2:23
2. From Me To You 1:56
3. Thank You Girl 2:03
4. She Loves You* 2:20
5. I'll Get You* 2:05
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand 2:25
7. This Boy 2:15
8. Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand 2:25
9. Sie Liebt Dich 2:18
10. Long Tall Sally 2:02
11. I Call Your Name 2:07
12. Slow Down 2:55
13. Matchbox 1:57
14. I Feel Fine 2:19
15. She's A Woman 3:02
16. Bad Boy 2:20
17. Yes It Is 2:41
18. I'm Down 2:31

Total running time: 42:19
All tracks stereo except for * (collapsed to mono).

Disc 2

[Tracklisting]
1. Day Tripper 2:47
2. We Can Work It Out 2:14
3. Paperback Writer 2:18
4. Rain 3:00
5. Lady Madonna 2:15
6. The Inner Light 2:34
7. Hey Jude 7:07
8. Revolution 3:23
9. Get Back 3:10
10. Don't Let Me Down 3:34
11. The Ballad Of John And Yoko 2:58
12. Old Brown Shoe 3:17
13. Across The Universe 3:47
14. Let It Be 3:49
15. You Know My Name (Look Up The Number)* 4:18

Total running time: 50:47
All tracks stereo except for * (collapsed to mono).

[Review]
'Past Masters' is a compilation album set which was originally released in 1988. Compiled by Mark Lewisohn, a Beatles authority, this is a collection of hits and rarities that includes every song commercially by the band not available on the 12 official UK albums or 'Magical Mystery Tour', preferably in stereo (with some exceptions, when a stereo mix had never been made). Disc 1 (that was originally released as "Volume 1") contains 11 tracks from UK singles including B-sides, both tracks from the German single 'Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand' / 'Sie Liebt Dich', all tracks from the 'Long Tall Sally' UK EP and the US-only track 'Bad Boy' from the US album 'Beatles VI'. Disc 2 (that was originally released as "Volume 2") contains 14 tracks from UK singles including B-sides and the "Wildlife" version of 'Across the Universe' from the charity album 'No One's Gonna Change Our World'.

The "Beatles in stereo" remastered vinyl records are sourced from a 24/48 digital master, not from an analogue master. Although I recognise there's a big difference between 24/48 and 16/44.1, I usually avoid digital-sourced vinyl records sampled at less than 96 kHz. So you'll never see me working on the Beatles official album remasters on vinyl: I'm in love with my three "Beatles collection" BC-13 blue boxes, that are genuine analogue-sourced copies and sooner or later I'll transfer them from scratch. I decided to do this transfer of 'Past Masters', though, after a comparison with the original release from 1988 on vinyl, which was also sourced from a digital master (supposedly at 16-bit) and which sounds much "thinner" to my ears. What's more, the CD counterparts of the remastered vinyl records are a bit dynamically compressed (not brickwalled, though) and so they sound louder.