The Beatles’ White Album set for deluxe reissue

(Image credit: John Downing - Getty)

The Beatles’ classic self-titled 1968 album, aka the White Album, is to be reissued as a deluxe package later this year.

It’s set to arrive on November 9 via Apple Corps Ltd/Capitol/UMe on standard 2LP, deluxe version and a super deluxe package, with the latter featuring a wealth of bonus content.

All 30 album tracks have been newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio. Also included are 27 early acoustic demos along with 50 session takes – most of which have been previously unreleased.

Martin and Okell worked with a team of engineers and audio restoration specialists at Abbey Road Studios in London, with the new White Album including Martin’s new stereo album mix, which has been sourced directly from the original four-track and eight-track session tapes.

Martin says: “In remixing the White Album, we’ve tried to bring you as close as possible to The Beatles in the studio. We’ve peeled back the layers of the Glass Onion with the hope of immersing old and new listeners into one of the most diverse and inspiring albums ever made.”

The super deluxe set comprises 6CDs and a Blu-ray along with a 164-page hardbound book, featuring reproductions of the original album’s four colour portraits of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.

The book is illustrated with “rare photographs, reproductions of handwritten and notated lyrics, previously unpublished photos of recording sheets and tape boxes, and reproduced original White Album print ads.”

New introductions by McCartney and Giles Martin will also feature, and the history of the record is documented by Beatles historian, author and radio producer Kevin Howlett, journalist and author John Harris and Tate Britain’s senior curator of modern and contemporary art Andrew Wilson.

To mark the announcement, a trailer for the package has been released.

Find a list of contents below along with pre-order details.

The Beatles White Album

Standard 2LP
White Album 2018 stereo mix on 180g vinyl in gatefold sleeve with replicated original artwork

Deluxe
3CD, 180g 4LP vinyl box set with digital audio collections pairing the 2018 stereo album mix with the 27 Esher Demos.

Super Deluxe
CDs 1 & 2: White Album - 2018 stereo album mix
CD3: Esher Demos: Tracks one through 19 sequenced in order of the finished song’s placement on the album. Songs 20-27 were not originally included.
CDs 4, 5 & 6: Sessions: 50 additional recordings, most previously unreleased, from the White Album studio sessions – all newly mixed and sequenced in order of their recording start dates. 

Blu-ray
2018 album mix in high resolution PCM stereo
2018 DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 album mix
2018 Dolby True HD 5.1 album mix
2018 direct transfer of the album’s original mono mix

The Beatles - White Album Deluxe Edition

The Beatles - White Album Deluxe Edition
50 years after its original release comes the deluxe edition of the Beatles' 1968 debut album, featuring  studio sessions, demos and more. Not to be missed.

Scott Munro
Louder e-commerce editor

Scott has spent more than 30 years in newspapers, magazines and online as an editor, production editor, sub-editor, designer, writer and reviewer. Scott joined our news desk in the summer of 2014 before moving to the e-commerce team in 2020. Scott maintains Louder’s buyer’s guides, scouts out the best deals for music fans and reviews headphones, speakers, books and more. He's written more than 11,000 articles across Louder, Classic Rock, Metal Hammer and Prog and has previous written for publications including IGN, the Sunday Mirror, Daily Record and The Herald, covering everything from daily news and weekly features, to video games, travel and whisky. Scott's favourite bands are Fields Of The Nephilim, The Cure, New Model Army, All About Eve, The Mission, Cocteau Twins, Drab Majesty, Marillion and Rush.