Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band is getting better all the time. It's now been remixed from the original tapes to mark its 50th anniversary.
The Beatles' iconic 1967 album, along with the rest of the band's catalogue, was remastered in 2009 to critical acclaim - but remained faithful to the original 1960s mix.
Now Giles Martin, son of the Beatles' original producer George Martin, has gone back to the original recordings to produce a radically different and all-new version of the groundbreaking record.
A short preview the band uploaded suggests the younger Martin has updated the record's sound, taking advantage of modern studio technology and doing away with the extreme stereo panning of the original - much like he did with the Love remix album in 2006.
In addition to the new mix, the deluxe version will include two discs of mostly unreleased outtakes from the studio sessions that produced the record, the original mono mix from 1967, and new versions of 'Strawberry Fields', as well as a documentary on the making of the album and a 144-page booklet.
"It's crazy to think that 50 years later we are looking back on this project with such fondness and a little bit of amazement at how four guys, a great producer and his engineers could make such a lasting piece of art," said Paul McCartney, who wrote 'Lovely Rita', 'Fixing a Hole' and the album's title track, among others.
Fans are salivating over the preview, which has snippets of album highlights 'Lovely Rita', 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' and 'A Day in the Life', plus more.
"My god this just blew me the f**k away. Wasn't expecting it to come this early. Lovely Rita sounds incredible," Reddit user TheresAPlace wrote on the /r/Beatles section of the popular web forum.
"Can we just take a moment to notice that despite the streaming, compressed-for-the-web audio quality, the music sounds absolutely phenomenal?" wrote nipplesaurus.
Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was released in May 1967, and is considered by many critics the band's finest - though a significant number prefer its predecessor, Revolver, or the band's swansong, Abbey Road.
It was named the greatest album in history by music bible Rolling Stone in 2012. Rubber Soul, Revolver and the self-titled 'white' album all featured in the top 10.
The 50th anniversary edition of Sgt Pepper will be out on May 26.
Newshub.
