Capitol Records have set July 15 as the US release date for The Japan Box, a set containing 5CDs that include Japanese versions of Meet the Beatles, The Beatles’ Second Album, A Hard Day’s Night, Help!, and The Beatles No 5, which was a Japanese only compilation album.
The set is a 50th Anniversary Edition, with the albums using 2009 remasters. Additionally, the set will contain a 100-page booklet. The official Japanese version is being released in Japan on June 25, with the US set coming not long after.
From my understanding, the set’s Help!, and A Hard Day’s Night will be the UK versions.
There is only one way that I will ever re-buy another Beatle album again in this lifetime – and that is if they release them on sacd/bd/dvd-a, preferably with a 5.1 mix. I think they have squeezed everything they can out of the majority of us.
I was never a great Beatles fan, so they got little from me. But I was/am a massive Lennon fan. Go figure!
I pretty much like everything they did from “Help!” on. Including solo material (although not every solo song is pure gold).