That, surely, is a step that would have the longtime Beatles-dedicated up in arms, but for most listeners, the songs, to steal a title from Led Zeppelin, remain the same. And, in the case of Love, that remains true for the most part. The listener gets a bit of the "quick medley run-through" in places as elements of this song or that song pop up here and there, but for the most part, the songs we all know and love are here in a fairly recognizable form, save for maybe "While My Guitar Gently Weeps," which, for some reason, sadly loses most of its beautiful guitar for strings. But then there are really intriguing moments where things really gel just right, like when "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite" suddenly morphs into "She's So Heavy," or the a capella album opener "Because," that are practically goosebump-worthy. There are more of those than "Guitar," thankfully.
In the end, Love is nothing radical or important, nor will it rank among the greatest Beatles creations out there. We may all have wished for the full-catalog remastering this Christmas, but this is a nice diversion in the meantime. One thing is for sure - Love makes it almost impossible to listen to the original, nearly 20-year-old CDs without yearning for those remasters that we know are coming. It couldn't be possible Apple Corps and Capitol planned it this way, could it? "It was 20 years ago today/Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play . . . " Do I hear a marketing scheme being hatched? Hmm...
Article comments
1 - Nik
Good review, and I like your take on the disc. I think my main problem with the disc, now that I've had more time to chew on it, is that I bought into the hype of it being a "mashup" or somesuch and was disappointed to consider it pretty tame as "mixing" up things went. That said, the more I listen to it the more blown away I am by the sound... and already putting another mortgage on the house in anticipation of buying the remastered albums whenever they appear. They get us every time!
2 - Tom Johnson
I think I went into this with the belief that there was no way they'd go with something as radical as a real mashup, Nik. I just couldn't believe they'd do something that could alienate the massive older fanbase they have who would absolutely not appreciate a move like that.
Something I wish I'd thought more about is what impact projects like this (and Let It Be Naked) are having on the legacy of the Beatles. Are they watering down the power of their catalog, or are they keeping their name out there, somewhat refreshened for younger ears that may not be already into them? A topic for another time, I suppose . . .
3 - Robert Rouse
I've listened to this album six times now - twice in 5.1 surround sound, and what I take away from it each time is something new - no pun intended. Even the songs that sound as if they're "untouched" have a richer stereo mix than ever before. The word that keeps coming to my mind is "soundscape". A lot of die hard Beatles fans aren't even giving "Love" a chance - and they have no idea what they're missing. I am probably more of a die-hard fan than most fans - my son's name is Harrison, my daughter is McCartney - and as long as Sir George Martin is at the mixing console, I have utter faith that he will protect the legacy he helped form.
I too am hoping Martin gets together with Giles, Paul and Ringo and does a "cleaning" of all the old discs, I have no problem purchasing all of them again for the fourth time. But he had better hurry. Martin is 80 years young - he needs to get this done.
A side note, as I listened to "Get Back", "Let It Be", etc. I was reminded of how much better the "Let It Be" album might have been with Martin in charge of production instead of Phil Spector.
4 - Jeremy
Except bringing out the re-mastered material, I did not find anything exciting on the album.
Gilles Martin- son gets a toy- access to the material no one else had before, uses technology to polish it, has couple of good ideas, but not enough talent to make it really something.
George Martin- getting old, trying to put his son's foot in the Beatles world. So the little one does not have to search for another 10-min-famous Hayley Westenra.
Paul, Ringo and Yoko- fighting for the Beatles legacy the wrong way through not very inspiring recycling of the old and stepping on the fingers of everyone who has talent, wants to play with their music and actually show its greatness from different perspectives, not only the Apple-approved one.
And while Beatles are proud to be in a circus, Gramophone magazine compares Bono to Beethoven :):):). Maybe Beatles should hire Ruffi for their "legacy" project.
5 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites.
6 - Connie Phillips
Congratulations! This article was an Editor's Pick this week.
7 - Brad Schader
Thank you for the review. I kept hearing about this "new" Beatles album, but had no idea what people were talking about. I heard "mash-up", but am old when it comes to music and had no idea what that was. This sounds interesting.