Beatles Drop 'Rubber Soul' Super Deluxe Box Set Friday — SkimNews
Get the Culture newsletter
Daily culture — film, music, books, the trends and ideas worth your attention. Free.
- The Beatles' 'Rubber Soul: Special Edition Super Deluxe' — a five-LP or four-CD boxed set years in the making — was released Friday, pairing a new stereo remix with outtakes and both the UK and US album versions.
- Giles Martin and Sam Okell produced the fresh stereo remix of the UK album, which the reviewer calls 'a spectacular upgrade' and 'essential,' available cheaply via streaming even without the box.
- The set includes 26 unreleased studio outtakes, among them a never-before-heard John Lennon demo of 'Little Girl' that the reviewer describes as 'a modest charmer' too old-fashioned for the album.
- Isolated instrumental tracks in the outtakes reveal how country/rockabilly-influenced 'Rubber Soul' was, including a non-vocal 'Run for Your Life' that 'sounds as much like a Buck Owens track' as 'Act Naturally.'
- Both the UK mono and US stereo editions appear in the box, with the vinyl including the 'Day Tripper'/'We Can Work It Out' single — yielding an 18-track playlist 'without a duff track anywhere in the mix' when combined.
- A hardback coffee-table book annotates all 18 songs with recording details, cultural context, and unresolved disputes (including the 'In My Life' authorship question between Lennon and McCartney).
- The reviewer joins a 'stubborn minority' arguing 'Rubber Soul' is the Beatles' best all-around album, citing its consistency over the more whiplash-inducing ambition of 'Revolver' and beyond.
Why it matters: For superfans with deep pockets, the box delivers four distinct components (remix, outtakes, UK mono, US stereo) plus a 18-track annotation book that revisits unresolved questions such as who wrote the melody to 'In My Life.' For everyone else, the Giles Martin/Sam Okell remix is essentially free on Spotify or Tidal — making the sonic upgrade accessible even if the physical box is not.
Ask SkimNews
