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.
Article comments
1 - marthus
If Lennon were alive today, he'd probably shoot George Martin for making this album.
2 - Michael
Nah, he'd just let Yoko out of her cage with orders to gnaw... gnaw like the wind!
3 - zingzing
really, he'd probably like the money. had to keep his habits going, you know.
4 - Michael
Well, I was just joking to kind of dull the bite of the first comment.
I personally think John would have gotten a big kick out of this... He might not have shown up at the Vegas show to support it, but he probably would give the record a listen or two.
Just to see what they managed to make his music sound like, again.
5 - zingzing
maybe. god knows how bad his current music would be had he survived... i mean, jesus, anyone who could really say they liked his stuff on double fantasy better than yoko's half of the album is just lying to themselves. feh!
6 - Michael
Yeah. While he does have some powerful solo stuff, the final few albums he managed to make... were not the best they could have been.
There is a part of me that wonders if he only kept making music at that point, because that's all he'd known how to "do"?
I don't know.
Very sad to know that this can never be anything but conjecture, though.
In the alternate universe that is my mind, I imagine what he'd be doing is living the life of a hermit and making the occasional uncredited guest appearances on his son Sean's albums.
Probably a solo on the bongo.
7 - john rowan
john lennon would be laughing at the comments ive read . he would have certainly appoved of love . we love you