We own Sgt Pepper’s and Abbey Road (also 1) but beyond that I’d only listened to their famous songs individually. It’s been interesting listening to the studio albums in order, even the average songs, plus a coupons with terrible misogynist lyrics (You Can’t Do That and Run For Your Life - both John Lennon songs it seems…)
But let’s talk about the production. Some of it is really uncomfortable to listen to, in headphones at least. All the guitars panned 100% to one side, just sounds terrible! Some of it is really interesting (Tomorrow Never knows is an obvious example), but other just sound so naive.
The stereo mixes were an afterthought. This was the days when AM radio was king and stereo was considered a novelty by the Beatles and many others:
Many feel that the mono mixes reflect the true intention of the band. For example, in the case of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band , all the mono mixes were done together with the Beatles themselves, throughout the recording of the album, whereas the stereo mixes were done in only six days by Abbey Road personnel George Martin, Geoff Emerick and Richard Lush after the album had been finished, with none of the Beatles attending.[10]George Harrison commented:
At that time […] the console was about this big with four faders on it. And there was one speaker right in the middle […] and that was it. When they invented stereo, I remember thinking ‘Why? What do you want two speakers for?’, because it ruined the sound from our point of view. You know, we had everything coming out of one speaker; now it had to come out of two speakers. It sounded like … very … naked .[11]