Billboard today confirmed the rumors that the Beatles' first four Capitol albums will be released as a boxed set on November 16. The article claims that the albums have been remastered from the original tapes with both stereo and mono versions of each song. Here's hoping for better sounding Beatles CDs finally. I had the opportunity to hear a pristine vinyl copy of "Something New" last week, on a friend's stereo system that's decidedly mid-fi, but my gosh, that vinyl was alive. We A/B'd the vinyl with the "A Hard Day's Night" CD, and there was no comparison. We knew right away, as soon as we got through "I'll Cry Instead".

One interesting thing to ponder is whether the boxed set will use the Dave Dexter-doctored mixes of some of the songs. Most obviously on "I Feel Fine" and "She's A Woman", Dexter added reverb to some songs to give the records a more "American" feel. I well remember hearing the UK release of "I Feel Fine" for the first time and being shocked at the dry mix (of course, the guitar solo in the middle eight is heavily reverbed in both versions).