Thursday , March 28 2024
Coming up for air after a week of enjoying the remastered music of the fab four.

Music Review: The Beatles – Love

After having had a few days to properly plug myself into my home stereo system via my headphones and diligently hit the repeat button countless amounts of times, I finally feel able to put down my feelings about the new album entitled Love by the Beatles.

Of course, the fact this isn’t really a new release by the Beatles is the first thing I find myself wanting to mention. Sure 99.99% of the sounds you will hear on this disc are those from the actual Beatles master tapes, but the remaining members of the group had very little to do with how said sounds were used.

Granted, the man who ultimately did have quite a lot to do with how those sounds were used is none other than George Martin (assisted more than admirably by his son Giles). As he is, in my mind at least, a rather large reason that the Beatles sounded like, well, the Beatles. This is the only other person that I would respect enough to give the project any credence at all.

And it deserves credence, my friends.

Ultimately nothing more or less than the rearranging of existing Beatles tracks and sounds into their becoming the soundtrack to a new performance project by Cirque du Soliel, Love manages to both excite my imagination as well as have me wanting to shake my stereo and ask “is this all that it is!?”

Don’t get me wrong, though, as I love every single second of this CD.

Working and wading their way through the holy grail that is the Beatles’ master tapes for over two years, the Martin duo have managed a glorious mishmash of sounds and emotions that pointedly stress that, for all intents and purposes, the music that the Beatles managed to record in their way-too-short recording lifetime, is nothing more or less than a celebration of love itself. Why wouldn’t they be the perfect soundtrack to a performance piece dedicated to celebrating life, love, and the simple joy of having those two things buzzing around together?

In fact, the Martins efforts shine through so beautifully that, well, it leaves me shaking my head and feeling slightly cheated.

The music on this CD, from the sublime melody of the Fab Four’s voices crooning their way through “Because,” to the raucous squeal of guitar slamming into your eardrums as John pleads for righteous change on “Revolution,” to the sublime beauty that is George Harrison singing “While my guitar gently weeps,” it just – well, maybe I’m still not ready to be able to put it all into words.

The music on this CD is so crystal clear and perfect and, most importantly, is armed with the potency of sounding “real” and “current,” and that is simply amazing. t is probably one of the most amazing albums I’ve heard in quite a long while. Having said that, my problem is that it is 2006 and I am only now getting to hear how gorgeous the music of these four men can truly sound on a CD? Why hasn’t there been a thunderous demand for such exquisite remastering on all of their albums?

That would be something that would truly show the world a perfect definition of the word love, as it would allow everyone — both old and new — to fall in love with the Beatles music all over again. Instead of being thought of as “Classic Rock” or “What my father listened to” – wouldn’t it be nice, for those of us too young to have had a chance to fall in love with this music on its first release, to be able to close our eyes and look at the world of our parents through our own ears?

Good grief, look how I’ve rambled. Long story short — this is a gorgeous CD, and one that I heartily recommend. For those of you, unlike me, that have a 5.1 surround sound system in their home, this album is also available in a limited edition that contains the, well, 5.1 version of this album.

I’m not sure my heart could take that, though.

About Michael Jones

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