Now that the dust has settled a bit, I thought it might be a good time to take a closer look at three of the Paul McCartney albums that came out last Friday – CD reissues of “Amoeba Gig”, “Paul is Live” and “CHOBA B CCCP” specifically.
Last time I posted about two of the Paul McCartney colored vinyl reissues (“Wings Over America” and “Paul is Live”) released last week but now I’d like to take a look at some of their CD counterparts which were issued at the same time.
First off, I will say that all three are definitely improved sound wise. Done by the same team at Abbey Road Studios that handles all of McCartney’s Archive Collection releases, these CDs all have deeper bass, more clarity and better separation than previous issues.
My vote for most improved would have to go to the “Amoeba Gig” CD for sure. Not only does it now include all 21 songs McCartney and his band performed at the Amoeba record store in 2007 but all previous versions of this material were mastered extremely loud which, for me, made listening to this material fatiguing.
This new set has been remixed from scratch and it shows it. “Amoeba Gig” now sounds so much better with nice, full deep bass and nice separation but not as loud. I did detect a few instances of slight autotune (“I’ll Follow the Sun”) which is unfortunate but not a deal breaker for me. I’d rather have that than a terribly loud disc which I won’t listen to at all.
“Amoeba Gig” is now one of my favorite later era McCartney live releases as it has a nice selection of songs and now sounds really nice – a very good gig that I didn’t take much notice of before but now will return to often.
The “Paul is Live”, like it’s vinyl cousin which I mentioned last week, sounds much less digital than the previous CD release with again has really nice bass and clarity but it also adds a warmth that was missing from previous versions of this album.
I particularly love the live versions of “Penny Lane” and “We Can Work it Out” on this disc which are two of my favorite live McCartney performances ever.
The “CHOBA B CCCP” disc also sounds really nice on and while an improvement it’s not quite as noticeable an improvement as the other two discs above. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a really nice sounding disc and a welcome addition to any McCartney collection but the previous one sounded good too.
This time out all three come in somewhat bare bones packaging – fold out mini-lp style sleeves with two of them – “Paul is Live” and “CHOBA B CCCP” – sporting poster pull-outs.
I was surprised that these three CDs were remastered and remixed but if this is the trend for further McCartney reissues than that’s fine by me. These all look and sound great and are easier on the wallet than super deluxe box set editions.
I will say that I hope the “London Town” and “Back to the Egg” albums get nice box set treatments as they are two of my favorite McCartney/Wings albums, but I would be fine with the rest of McCartney’s albums getting this style of reissue before the advent of the end of physical media.
Time will tell but these new CD reissues are a nice surprise and well worth taking the time to seek out if you’re a fan of Paul McCartney’s music.
As usual take a gander above at photos of these groovy new discs!
Until next time – be well and relax, it’s summertime!!!
Records, CDs and Music: 