The Beatles - Love

[Spike-X]

Holy shit.

[The Foreigner]

Is this the Cirque Du Soleil show in Vegas?

[Spike-X]

The soundtrack thereof, I believe.

[Cayman]

I'd like to hear it, but is it something you'd want to hear multiple times?

[Spike-X]

I'll let you know in a couple of months.

[J. Robb]

With the elevated vocals and heavier bass, the music is obviously designed for blaring out of giant theatre speakers at the Cirque Du Soleil show, and I imagine it works pretty well in that environment.

But just listening to it at home, it's basically a Beatles mixtape with some tricks thrown in. Yeah, a couple are kind of neat, but mostly the disc just made me want to listen to the original albums again.

[Cayman]

I downloaded Lady Madonna. It sounded good.

[Buried Alien]

Pretty damn awesome. The effect of the remixing (and rematching in some cases) is a dusting off of these forty-plus year old gems and making them fit into the world of 21st Century pop music.

Buried Alien (The Fastest Post Alive!)

[The Foreigner]

It's quite cool to pick out the little changes in the songs, and hear how certain songs overlap or are combined. I also love how the songs flow one to the next.

The accoustic version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" with strings is lovely. The drum solo from "The End" combined with the opening of "Get Back" is pretty rockin' as well.

[The Confessor]

Well, I purchased the new Beatles CD today and I've just finished listening to it, so I wanted to share my first impressions of it.

So, "what's it like?" I hear you ask. In a word...FAB!
Really very, very good indeed.

In case anybody doesn't know, this album was commissioned by the Cirque De Soleil for their show "Love" which opened in Las Vegas some weeks ago I believe. It's basically a new Beatles’ soundscape (George Martin's term, not mine), utilising music found on the band's original multi-track recording tapes. So, although it's all music we've heard before, it's been cut-up, remixed and generally messed around with by George Martin and his son to produce a re-translation of The Beatles' music.

So really, it's like one giant Beatles 'mash-up'. Kinda like the sort of thing that Soulwax do on their 'Too Many DJs/Radio Soulwax' albums (if you're familier with them), only with Beatles' music. But because of George Martin's excellent musical ear it's far in advance of the sort of 'mash-ups' that guys like the Freelance Hellraiser or Go Home Productions knock out in terms of quality & originality. Probably only Soulwax's stuff comes close to being as revelatory and inspired as the sequencing & mixing on this album in my opinion.

And make no mistake, this album IS absolutely inspired. It's truly a work of God-like genius. It's just a really refreshing and different way for us long-time Beatles fans to hear these classic old songs. Almost like hearing the Beatles for the first time...again.

It would probably make a really great party album too, as there's not really any gaps between the tracks. It's sort of like a wicked Beatles-themed DJ set. The track listing on the cover gives you a rough idea of which songs are being used at various points on the album but there are also loads of other little snippets of songs that fly in and out of the mix all the way through the album. And it's great fun spotting them and identifying which tracks they came from originally! :)

It's also worth noting that ALL the music on this album is original Beatles music recorded during the 1960s, except for the string section on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which was composed by George Martin especially for this project. By the way, this isn't the version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps from the White Album but the acoustic outtake version that first appeared on Anthology 3. There are a couple of other instances of music that was unearthed for the Anthology project being used on this album but not very many. I'd say that over 90% of the music on this record is taken from the officially released, 60s versions of the songs that we all know and love.

For me the stand out tracks are as follows...

Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing - This is a great meshing of three songs to form a new whole that sounds as if it was always meant to be heard this way.

Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite/I Want You (She's So Heavy)/Helter Skelter - It's fantastic when that really menacing riff from I Want You comes in over the top of Mr Kite.

Strawberry Fields Forever - This track is an amalgamation of four different versions of the song. It starts off with John's acoustic demo, then segues into the ‘Take 1’ version of the song (first heard on Anthology 2) and then morphs into the 'band version' from the first half of the classic single version. Finally it ends with the 'Heavy' version featuring the orchestra, also from the original single version. It's awesome!

Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows - Now this is just inspired! It's basically Within You Without You with the drums and the 'seagull' guitar loops from Tomorrow Never Knows over the top. Hearing it makes you glad to be alive!

Here Comes The Sun – The best thing about this track is that it now features the tabla and tambouras from Love You Too off of Revolver.

Sgt. Pepper's Hearts Club Band (Reprise) - Personally I always loved the reprise version of this song more than the opening version anyway, but now it starts off with the horns from the outro of Hey Jude on top of it. It sounds amazing!


So there you go! That's my first impressions of the 'Love' album. In case you’re unsure of my opinion, I love it! ;) It’s not just another cynical repackaging of tried and tested classics for the Xmas market, but a truly worthwhile musical endeavor featuring music created by the best band in the history of the world...Ever!

THIS IS AN ESSENTIAL PURCHASE.

BUY IT...IMMEDIATELY!

[Ilash]

Well, I purchased the new Beatles CD today and I've just finished listening to it, so I wanted to share my first impressions of it.

So, "what's it like?" I hear you ask. In a word...FAB!
Really very, very good indeed.

In case anybody doesn't know, this album was commissioned by the Cirque De Soleil for their show "Love" which opened in Las Vegas some weeks ago I believe. It's basically a new Beatles’ soundscape (George Martin's term, not mine), utilising music found on the band's original multi-track recording tapes. So, although it's all music we've heard before, it's been cut-up, remixed and generally messed around with by George Martin and his son to produce a re-translation of The Beatles' music.

So really, it's like one giant Beatles 'mash-up'. Kinda like the sort of thing that Soulwax do on their 'Too Many DJs/Radio Soulwax' albums (if you're familier with them), only with Beatles' music. But because of George Martin's excellent musical ear it's far in advance of the sort of 'mash-ups' that guys like the Freelance Hellraiser or Go Home Productions knock out in terms of quality & originality. Probably only Soulwax's stuff comes close to being as revelatory and inspired as the sequencing & mixing on this album in my opinion.

And make no mistake, this album IS absolutely inspired. It's truly a work of God-like genius. It's just a really refreshing and different way for us long-time Beatles fans to hear these classic old songs. Almost like hearing the Beatles for the first time...again.

It would probably make a really great party album too, as there's not really any gaps between the tracks. It's sort of like a wicked Beatles-themed DJ set. The track listing on the cover gives you a rough idea of which songs are being used at various points on the album but there are also loads of other little snippets of songs that fly in and out of the mix all the way through the album. And it's great fun spotting them and identifying which tracks they came from originally! :)

It's also worth noting that ALL the music on this album is original Beatles music recorded during the 1960s, except for the string section on While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which was composed by George Martin especially for this project. By the way, this isn't the version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps from the White Album but the acoustic outtake version that first appeared on Anthology 3. There are a couple of other instances of music that was unearthed for the Anthology project being used on this album but not very many. I'd say that over 90% of the music on this record is taken from the officially released, 60s versions of the songs that we all know and love.

For me the stand out tracks are as follows...

Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing - This is a great meshing of three songs to form a new whole that sounds as if it was always meant to be heard this way.

Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite/I Want You (She's So Heavy)/Helter Skelter - It's fantastic when that really menacing riff from I Want You comes in over the top of Mr Kite.

Strawberry Fields Forever - This track is an amalgamation of four different versions of the song. It starts off with John's acoustic demo, then segues into the ‘Take 1’ version of the song (first heard on Anthology 2) and then morphs into the 'band version' from the first half of the classic single version. Finally it ends with the 'Heavy' version featuring the orchestra, also from the original single version. It's awesome!

Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows - Now this is just inspired! It's basically Within You Without You with the drums and the 'seagull' guitar loops from Tomorrow Never Knows over the top. Hearing it makes you glad to be alive!

Here Comes The Sun – The best thing about this track is that it now features the tabla and tambouras from Love You Too off of Revolver.

Sgt. Pepper's Hearts Club Band (Reprise) - Personally I always loved the reprise version of this song more than the opening version anyway, but now it starts off with the horns from the outro of Hey Jude on top of it. It sounds amazing!


So there you go! That's my first impressions of the 'Love' album. In case you’re unsure of my opinion, I love it! ;) It’s not just another cynical repackaging of tried and tested classics for the Xmas market, but a truly worthwhile musical endeavor featuring music created by the best band in the history of the world...Ever!

THIS IS AN ESSENTIAL PURCHASE.

BUY IT...IMMEDIATELY!

Yay! Now I don't have to post my thoughts because this does pretty much cover my opinion of this great new release. Two things though: 1) I wish they went further with more of the songs but 2) even when the song is basically the same as the original, the Beatles have simply never sounded this good on CD.

[howyadoin]

Two words:

Fucking.

Masterpiece.

[bert]

got it as a Chanukkah gift, but haven't been home long enough to crack the wrapper yet.

I'm guessing I'll get to listen to it tomorrow night.

I'm looking forward to it.

[Sanagi]

I like this album a lot, but my one major nitpick is that the opening of Octopus's Garden just seems to emphasize that Ringo's singing is not that good.