Album Reviews

Before I get further into this follow-up review, a short disclaimer: other than the US Apple/Capitol singles of “We Can Work It Out”/“Day Tripper” and “Hey Jude”/“Revolution” (which, as expected, sound lousy), I don’t have any Beatles 7” singles other than this new The Singles Collection box. All my Beatles listening is on LP (the 2014 mono series, the Giles Martin remix LPs, and a few mono and stereo UK and European pressings) and the occasional lossless digital format, therefore from these recordings I’m used to great sound quality. My expectations for The Singles Collection (generously gifted to me by AnalogPlanet editor Michael Fremer) were likely different from most others’: sure, I expected the all-analog lacquer cuts to sound good, but sound quality on 7” singles isn’t the first thing I think about. With the 7” format, it’s primarily about the musical content, collectibility, packaging (when applicable), and finally, sound quality.

Upon reading Fremer’s negative review of the box, disappointment and skepticism simultaneously set it. It’s a shame that they missed their opportunity here, but is it really that bad? I thought. My box arrived on Saturday (a day after release), and thankfully it’s not nearly as bad as he led me to believe.

First of all, we can all agree that the packaging for this box is fantastic. Housed within a glossy blue two-piece box, The Singles Collection is exquisitely packaged on the outside, and save for a few surprisingly grainy scans, the sleeve art for each single (replicating single sleeves from around the world) doesn’t disappoint. The booklet, while short, gives an easy-to-follow history of the Beatles and their single releases. The disc labels are just as great as the sleeves and continue the nice design concept. I saw some people on an online forum complaining that the box doesn’t replicate the UK sleeves and labels, but do you really want a box full of generic Parlophone/Apple sleeve designs? Didn’t think so.

Second, Optimal’s pressing, as Michael noted, is also, as expected, great. One of my singles had a label that was clearly wrinkled before adherence to the disc, but it’s barely noticeable. Only a few of my discs had slight warps, and during playback all 7”s are quiet. Not bad at all for a 23 record box set.

Now, let’s dive into the sound. Save for a few singles from digital sources (“Love Me Do”/“P.S. I Love You” due to a missing tape, “Free As A Bird”/“Real Love” because of its completion on U-Matic digital tape, and one or two other unknown singles due to tape deterioration), this set is cut all-analog from the original single masters. Fremer’s assessment noted that these cuts’ sound is mostly attack with a dried-up reverb space, and I noted the same thing. However, it doesn’t negatively impact many of these singles, particularly the 1962-65 cuts, all that much. The entire set typically sounds brighter than what I’m used to on these recordings, but again, I didn’t expect audiophile 7” 45s here. Some of the sides do sound more distant and muffled than expected, specifically “I Feel Fine,” “Help!,” “Rain,” and “Eleanor Rigby.” The singles that ended up on the Magical Mystery Tour LP (“Strawberry Fields Forever”/“Penny Lane,” “All You Need Is Love”/“Baby You’re A Rich Man,” and “Hello Goodbye”/“I Am A Walrus”) are the only ones that truly disappoint; they’re overly bright, compressed, and fatiguing. Without these, the set would be an 8 for sound but factoring them in lowers the score to 7. It’s not the best for sound quality, though it’s nowhere near as bad as Fremer’s initial review states.

Overall, this set is a nice decorative piece that’s a pleasure to look through, sounds good enough, and provides listeners plenty of exercise from flipping/changing records every song. While the Magical Mystery Tour-era singles greatly underwhelm, without referencing the 1977 World Records box, The Singles Collection sounds about as good as you’d expect it to; not quite audiophile but mostly nowhere near bad. It’s a bit overpriced (I don’t think it should cost more than $180) but if you’re a Beatles fan and collector, don’t be deterred from buying simply because it’s not the absolute best sounding Beatles singles box.