Our next entry in The 2019 PopCult Gift Guide can be previewed in part Wednesday at 2 PM on The AIR, as we bring you the fiftieth episode of Beatles Blast, which coincidentally celebrates fifty years of Abbey Road. You can tune in to The Air website or listen on this embedded radiophonic widget…
The deluxe boxed set of Abbey Road has three CDS and a Blu Ray Audio disc with a brand new mix of the classic Beatles album. It is the perfect gift for any Beatles fan, any sane human who enjoys fantastic music, and young peoples who have yet to be exposed to this work of genius.
The album — the last that the group recorded together, but released on 26 September 1969, before 1970’s Let It Be — are available in new stereo, 5.1 Surround and Dolby Atmos mixes. Its 17 tracks have been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell, accompanied by 23 session recordings and demos, most of them previously unreleased. These are presented on the Super Deluxe and Deluxe vinyl box sets in chronological order of their first recording dates.
This is the first time Abbey Road has been remixed and presented with additional session recordings and demos. To create Abbey Road’s new stereo, 5.1 surround, and Dolby Atmos mixes, Martin and Okell worked with an expert team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios. This Super Deluxe Edition of Abbey Road features the new stereo album mix, sourced directly from the original eight-track session tapes. To produce the mix, Giles was guided by the album’s original stereo mix supervised by his father, George Martin.
Abbey Road’s Super Deluxe box set presents 40 tracks – including “The Long One” Trial Edit & Mix for the album’s epic Side 2 medley – on three CDs (stereo) and one Blu-ray disc (Dolby Atmos, 96kHz/24 bit high resolution stereo, and 96 kHz/24 bit DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1).
The four discs are housed in a slip-sleeved 12” by 12” 100-page hardbound book with McCartney’s foreword; Martin’s introduction; insightful, in-depth chapters written by Beatles historian, author, and radio producer Kevin Howlett covering the months preceding The Beatles’ Abbey Road sessions, track-by-track details and session notes, the cover art and photo shoot, and the album’s reception upon its release; plus an essay by music journalist and author David Hepworth looking at the album’s influence through 50 years.
The gorgeous book is illustrated with rare and previously unpublished photographs, including many taken by Linda McCartney; never before published images of handwritten lyrics, sketches, and a George Martin score; Beatles correspondence, recording sheets, and tape boxes; and reproduced original print ads.
If that doesn’t convince you to buy this for the Beatles fan on your shopping list (or for yourself) just tune in to The AIR at 2 PM Wednesday at 2 PM, with replays throughout the next week, to hear some of the gems in this set. It’s available at most retailers who carry music for under ninety bucks, which is a bargain, considering what this is.
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