Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This box of "The US Albums" (in quotes for a reason) is released to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the groups arrival in America. The market for this release are those who cherish the American versions of the albums; those who may have packed them away with their other vinyl many years ago. This sounds like a great way to get those fans to revisit the music, with the unique artwork and song sequencing, to help one get nostalgic for the times. Except, the very people this archival set is aimed at might be disappointed because these albums will NOT sound like they remember them. What many may not realize, is EIGHT of these THIRTEEN discs were released correctly in two box sets, "The Capitol Albums Vol. 1" (2004) and "The Capitol Albums Vol. 2" (2006). Grab those boxes while you can. They are going out of print to make way for this revision of history. The artwork isn't as nice as the artwork here, but the albums will sound the way you remember them. Warts and all. Fake stereo and all. Proper mixes and all. For this release, they used the 2009 remasters of the UK catalog and substituted your American memories with the British versions. This is pretty much a playlist, if you will, wrapped up in pretty packaging for a tug at your heartstrings and wallets. And these will be on iTunes, which the 2004 and 2006 boxes weren't, so this inaccurate telling of the American story will get the most attention. I didn't grow up with these albums the way many did. My concern is historical accuracy. They are being called the "original albums," but the original albums didn't contain remixes from 1987, which are found on FOUR of the albums in this set. Furthermore, "I'll Cry Instead" is on "A Hard Day's Night" in mono twice on the same disc. This is because there is no proper stereo mix of the longer version of that song. So instead of giving us both options (the mono and original fake stereo), you are forced to simply have it in mono twice, while claiming to offer a true stereo version of the full album. "Love Me Do" and "PS I Love You" are treated the same. "Yesterday and Today" misses the unique stereo mixes of "I'm Only Sleeping" and "Dr. Robert." The differences may be slight, but different they are, and they should be here. The press release said all unique American mixes would be included and they missed some. When they took Spector out of "Let It Be," they changed the name to "Let It Be.. Naked." When they take Dexter and the US out of "The US albums", they still misrepresent these as the "original" US albums. If they called the set "The US Albums.. Naked," I'd not care too much. The UK mixes were already issued in 2009 in wonderful stereo & mono boxes. The US albums box should consist of the US albums. I understand that these albums, with their proper stereo and mono mixes, will sound better to those who didn't like the US albums. But that doesn't make it right. This item is being released FOR and targeted AT those very people who cherish the vinyl they grew up with. NOT the people who didn't like them in the first place. The SOUND of the original 60s albums is THE WHOLE POINT.