The Beatles second UK LP (With The Beatles) is not among my favorite Beatles albums, in actuality it’s arguably their least great non Yellow Submarine studio album. But that’s not to imply I don’t like listening to the album in it’s 2009 remastered form nor is it to say that With The Beatles doesn’t have any great songs on it because I do and it does.
I do believe that when looking at only the 8 Beatles originals on the LP, it’s probably the least good selection of originals the lads from liverpool ever released on an album (the very underrated Beatles For Sale has a much better collection of 8 originals in my opinion) on the other hand, the covers on this album are pretty good (better than the covers on Beatles For Sale.)
My favorite originals to listen to on the With The Beatles Remastered CDs are the first three songs. In particular I’ve been enjoying song number two, “All I’ve Got To Do” in the remastered mono. It sounds fantastic.
Another song that has actually been making an impression on me is song #9, “Hold Me Tight.” Paul wrote and sang lead on this one and he’s dismissed it as being a “work song”. And while the song is far from Paul’s best work, I think it is a good time.
Among the cover songs I think “Till There Was You” is my favorite. It’s an extremely cheesy sickly sweet ballad but I think in some strange way it works because of that. The record’s final track, “Money” is an excellent way to end the album. When I listen close to the remastered mono version I actually hear the song as much more unhinged than I realized. It rocks pretty darn hard.
In general I prefer the stereo mixes(especially with the later albums which are my favorite, anyway) when it comes to the 2009 Beatles remasters but I do think that this album sounds a bit better in mono.
Harold Donald Quesenberry’s favorite music sites are this Beatles Focused Music Blog and this Online “Radio Station”