George Harrison All Things Must Pass 50th Anniversary Edition - contents, outtakes & sound quality

All due respect if you dip your toe in and out of this place because someone drew an apt comparison but of a band you subjectively hate, maybe your toe is better dipped permanently somewhere else where you don't have to worry about people mentioning Guns N' Roses in your presence? Lol


Anyways, I am stoked to hear ATMP in a full remixed forum so I will be following this thread with curiosity

 

Just listened to that Run of the Mill.

I agree with another poster that the vocal is waaay too forward in the mix. For me, this is wrong, this time in the opposite direction. Very disappointed. They wanted recessed vocals in 1970 and they got them. Now they wanted to "fix" this by moving the vocals forward and putting the music separately in the background. Wish they went with that boring, statement-less thing called balanced and integrated.

This all reminds me of when they add too much bass to a recording because there wasn't enough bass before. (sigh). Someone with their finger on a dial rather than a toe tapping in their shoe. Maybe they thought people would complain if it wasn't "un-Spectorized" enough.

Hopefully spinning this and other songs in person will make all the difference. Some of the other snippets I heard in the new Harrison promo video sounded MUCH more balanced than this. I actually liked those quite a bit in fact - assuming they are the new versions. Fingers crossed!

 

Oh boy, here come all the threads complaining about the remix after everybody asked for a remix.

 

The original mix is a little muddy, but, consider it was Phil Spector's work. I like his Wall Of Sound, but on ATMP, it has no brilliance.

 

Wouldn’t be the SHF if people didn’t desperately complain of an item they haven’t even seen or listened to, of course after years and years of complaining that such an item didn’t exist.

 

Even if I could easily afford it, I wouldn't buy it.

 

Isn't that always the way it goes, though? Everyone has their own idea on how a remix should sound, but the remix rarely ever lives up to everyone's expectations.

Most people bitched for years and years for Beatles remixes. So, we got 'em, and all we heard were complaints, even though some were justified, IMO. But, always be careful for what you ask for, because you just might get it.

 

Ouch! I don't think I like what i've just heard. Maybe i'll save my pennies.

 

But, the argument was that they needed to freshen up the sound for the younger generations, not the baby-boomers.

 

Exactly. Boomers will always complain.
“I bought it in 1746 and to me nothing will beat that experience”

Well, carry on with your 1746 copy, nothing forces tou to buy the remix..

 

For sure. The predictability of it all is just funny.

I'll never understand why people take it so seriously. If you're not into it, cool, the original album will always be there and it's been remastered. You don't need to buy any of this. The desire to hear what was never originally intended to be heard should always come with an acceptance that you might not like it and the person working on the material may not take the approach you want. Even when George was alive and put something out for the last ATMP anniversary, fans weren't happy with the result.

Sometimes it's like fans have this endless void which will never be filled because what they really want is to hear this music for the first time as a teenager again.

 

In regards to the 5CD set I have to say on the whole this is the perfect presentation of a box set for me. It's simple, small and focuses primarily on the music. I don't care for extravagant books as long as I have session info. I don't even care for the poster.

I bought the Stones Goats Head Soup box last year and it's just too big (and not very easy to read the book which I still haven't done yet)

As it stands ATMP 5CD/BD it is simply too expensive for what it is though.

Joni Mitchell got a perfect balance with her recent Archives set. Simple box. 5CDs in cardboard slip cases, small soft book, and retailed for £65.

 

Just curious: can mikec or anyone else now divulge when the ORIGINAL release date for ATMP50 was going to be?

 

Keeping aside your personal preference, I think your post does a good job of highlighting the problem with the 5CD/Blu set.

It may be simple and elegant like the Joni Mitchell box set you describe. Until like her set which was priced accordingly at £65, the Harrison’s want £112 which kinda puts into more lavish box set zone price wise.

I think Goat’s Head Soup is not a great example of design. I have that set and can’t understand why anyone would glue the book to the box! A better example would be recent deluxe sets like Abbey Road or Plastic Ono Band, which took different approaches but provided a much better physical product. The books in these sets are superb and big draw for fans like me to spend the extra cash (especially when some of us don’t have much use for the CD discs).

 

On my first listen, I found the new remix (Run Of The Mill) quite bassy right from the starting acoustic intro pieces. But then I realized it was actually more to do with the sound signature of my Bose headphones. Switching to my usual Audio Technica studio monitors, the balance of the mix sounds much better to me.

Yeah, George’a vocal is bit upfront now and takes getting bit used to (if the original is etched in our heads). But few listens down, my ears got more familiar and everything seemed more smooth with increased clarity.

Besides George being up and center (which I expected), they’ve also brought Jim Price (horns) from sort of back and up on the stage to right next to George. The horns have great tone but it took some listens to get used to this change.

Overall, the sound of the mix seems similar to Paul’s work on Imagine. There is more body to the mix with vocals front up and better instrument definition. Compared to the Lennon mix which stayed very close to the original instrument levels and stereo positioning, they have taken bit more liberties here.

Personally I have waited a long time for this album to be remixed (ever since I first heard it in mid 2000s) and so can’t wait to full album remix to be out. Over the years, I have come to appreciate the Spector mix but hoping this gives another cool alternate listening experience!

 

Seems like the formats have caused a lot of negative reaction here. The packaging is either too large or too small!

I think ultimately the purpose of these sets is to expand your knowledge and enjoyment of the album. Perhaps one of the early forerunners of this was Sgt Pepper which gave listeners the lyrics, a talking point front cover and the cut-outs. The modern SDEs obviously expand the back stories massively. The books accompanying The Beatles, McCartney and Lennon sets have been in the main excellent. Well designed, informative and packed with photographs, memorabilia and imagery, they have provided archeological excavations of the album, centred upon the recordings and putting them in historical context. It is difficult to comment on the All Things Must Pass documentation at present. It would appear that the Uber set will include detailed notes in a nicely presented deluxe format. A lot of comment has centred upon the reduced page counts for the smaller sets as well as the size of the CD SDE. Personally it is the accompanying books that sell the Uber edition and I would miss the reduced detail in the smaller sets. The other items are perhaps less important and in this case make the largest set very expensive. I was quite amused however by the photograph of Dhani sitting on the wooden box. Those who are struggling with explaining the cost to partners can perhaps explain that the set also offers a piece of furniture at no extra cost!

I think that the main losers will be the CD set that will inevitably be less impressive with a relatively small booklet rather than a 'book. The Lennon sets I think offer a minimum size for these books from my point of view. There are some excellent and expansive CD booklets that have accompanied both standard and special edition music releases over the years and they are always very welcome. However they can be more difficult to enjoy for those of us with less than 20/20 vision. In a few cases the text has been so small that I have had to resort to enlarging them on a photocopier in order to read them! I really hope that is not required here and that those who cannot justify the Uber edition still get the full story behind the All Things Must Pass set. I can't help but feel that with a much reduced page count purchasers will miss out in some way. I guess we will have to wait for unboxings to get a full impression of this aspect.

I am going to reserve judgement as I am sure that a lot of work will have gone into these sets by the Harrison team. It is very easy to criticise before the releases actually appear and I have in the past been as guilty as anyone in this. Generally I think that the Harrison curated items have in the past been of high quality. The Dark Horse and Apple Years sets had a small footprint and were nicely produced. Perhaps though as I try to recall the contents of the booklets and am failing miserably is significant. That could of course just be advancing years!

Let's give these first releases a chance before getting too critical.

Many here seem to feel that the Lennon sets offer a good balance in terms of content and size. Some of the McCartney sets, wbile in tbe main excellent, are costly while The Beatles sets do seem to have trod that balance of price/content admirably.

I think that there will be plenty of comment and debate on this subject when ATMP hits the doormats. Just remember though that there will be some new music to enjoy as well!

 

As @positively4th pointed out earlier in the thread, and is seemingly being glossed over the new 2020 mix of Run Of The Mill, the actual track from the album, is up on streaming sites now becoming the third full track released from this upcoming anniversary set.

 

This is my situation exactly. Although the CD’s and Blurays never get played once ripped to my server, I have bought almost all previous Beatles and Solo SDE’s because they usually included something to prefer them over just streaming them from Tidal, Qobuz etc; A great book, extra content not available on the streaming sites. Unfortunately this is not the case with the ATPM50 SDE and the Uber set is out of my range.

So I will be streaming this in 24/192 from Qobuz on August 6. (And save some money for what’s coming hopefully later this year)

 

The criticism about the Uber edition having the full book info is one I agree with, but I would argue this is a problem with every Beatles release, as a group and solo.

This is something which those of us who have never been able to buy the SDE sets to begin with have had to deal with for some time. The books should be sold separately.

 

Hi Autumn Daze, I can't seem to find it on spotify or youtube, really want to hear the new mix

 

Apologies, I don’t know how to do screenshots but it’s certainly on Amazon Music HD and Apple Music right now.

 

Re: The size of the box for the 5CD + Blu Ray Deluxe box

Amazon now says 19.6 cm X 4 X 19.8 .

If that's right it makes the box slightly larger than the Beatles Christmas Singles box (Which is pretty much exactly 19cm x 19cm), shown here alongside the 2014 ATMP Remaster.

So, not John Lennon Ultimate box size, but better than had been suggested (if Amazon are right).

 

The Lennon sets have found a way to get around that. The accompanying books published separately do not merely replicate the SDE notes but do offer a sound historical overview to complement the listening experience even if you are not able to spring for the larger sets. There is a photographic book covering the All Things Musg Pass era and a little beyond but it does not offer the scope and historical context of the Lennon books.

 

No need to apologise, thanks for the tip off

 

Doesn't that mean though that the people who bought the SDE would feel a need to buy the other book as well? Creating two books means unnecessary overlap imo.

Mainly what I want to get across here is that I feel if you have an issue with fans being excluded from content based on what they can afford, you should take note of the role SDEs play in that.