The Beatles - Yellow Submarine Songtrack

10.0 - England - 1998

Until the 2009 Remasters, this was by far the best sounding The Beatles CD around.  Being a compilation of (most of) the songs featured in the brilliant 1969 animated feature (which, for reasons unknown, was to be remade in threedee by Robert Zemeckis – thankfully, a project since cancelled), it also functions as a good anthology of highlights from The Beatles’ most productive period.  Unlike most remasters though, to do this one they went back to the original multitrack tapes and remixed the songs.  While this may seem like Zemeckisian tampering, it brings out hitherto undiscerned elements without substantively changing the songs themselves.  The vocals in “Eleanor Rigby”, for example, have never sounded better.  Also: first time underrated Harrisong “Only A Northern Song” was officially heard in stereo.