The Beatles: Love
1 Feb
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Here’s something that all my friends in real life know about me but don’t reveal too much on the web:
I love The Beatles. Yes, those four guys (and two of them are dead) with the weird hairdos who sing in harmonies and “She Loves You” and smoke weed and basically what grumpy old men in their 70s listen to.
Finished laughing already? No? Okay!
Ok, so I just bought their new album LOVE, expecting a tired, random “The Beatles, Remixed” package. I knew it was a mashup album, but I still wasn’t expecting too much of it. I knew George Martin and his son Giles produced the 26-track album , but even though George Martin was the original producer of most of the Beatles’ songs, I still thought I wouldn’t be impressed. So why did I buy it in the first place? I’m a big fan (as I stated already), and since this is being touted as “the first Beatles album since 1970″, I just had to listen to it. So how was LOVE?
Let me just tell you this: “The Beatles, Remixed” it was not. It was something else. Totally indescribable.
Unlike my previous reviews, I won’t give you a song-by-song review of the album because the album is just one whole medley and each track being a jumble of sounds from other songs, and breaking down each track and talking about the strengths and weaknesses of each would be an exercise in futility.
So I’ll just say what I like and don’t like about LOVE.
Let me just say that since all the tracks in this album are embedded into everyone’s collective memory, a “best of” would only bore the hell out of me. I already have the original tracks, why bother with the new one?
So mixing and mashing the songs with the Beatles’ other similar songs made it work. The most stunning of these is the usage of the bass and drum line of “Tomorrow Never Knows” as the base of “Within You Without You”. These two songs were both spiritual and the merging felt inevitable.
However, some of these mashups felt awkward, like putting the string section of “Goodnight” into “Octupus’s Garden”. Just because Ringo sang them both doesn’t mean they can be mixed. Each song segues seamlessly into each other, and that means some songs have to be cut down for the sake of fitting 26 songs in one album. It’s such a shame, really, since all the tracks had been remastered and doesn’t sound tinny, unlike the originals. They sound so full and like you were with the Beatles in the studio as they were recording their tracks. So cutting down the songs means we had to miss an extra verse from “Get Back” and “Hey Jude”.
However, they kept “Help!” and “A Day In The Life” intact. And I am thankful that they only remastered “A Day In The Life”, because that song is a masterpiece in itself and can never ever be remixed. However, these songs were arranged so that they would segue seamlessly with the rest of the album.
My favorite track on the album however, has to be the haunting acoustic demo of George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”, backed by a new string arrangement written by Martin. This could stand as a new single and another possible new #1 for them.
So my verdict? I’m giving this album five out of five virgin losers.
Thanks to Riff for the image. More virgin losers at the TMB Forum.
Tracklisting:
- Because
- Get Back
- Glass Onion
- Eleanor Rigby/Julia
- I Am the Walrus
- I Want to Hold Your Hand
- Drive My Car/The Word/What You’re Doing
- Gnik Nus
- Something/Blue Jay Way
- Being for the the Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You (She’s So Heavy)/Helter Skelter
- Help!
- Blackbird/Yesterday
- Strawberry Fields Forever
- Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
- Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
- Octopus’s Garden
- Lady Madonna
- Here Comes the Sun/The Inner Light
- Come Together/Dear Prudence/Cry Baby Cry
- Revolution
- Back in the U.S.S.R.
- While My Guitar Gently Weeps
- A Day in the Life
- Hey Jude
- Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)
- All You Need Is Love
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three of them are already dead methinks.
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I know that John and George are dead. Has Ringo died?
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[quote comment="17155"]three of them are already dead methinks.[/quote]
[quote comment="17157"]I know that John and George are dead. Has Ringo died?[/quote]
Paul and Ringo are still alive and well.
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The Beatles rule! The track selection is interesting, but where’s Imagine? Or Yesterday?
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Jhay: Imagine was written by John Lennon as a solo artist.
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I happened to listen to the songs in this album few months ago over the web. They were awesome as ever. Now I need to grab a copy in the nearby shop.
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very few people know it, but i’ve loved the beatles since high school, and was fortunate enough to be able to buy a pirated mp3 CD containing all the beatles’ songs (i love pirated stuffs, so sue me!)
i wasn’t interested with the Love album because i love the original versions…but since you say it’s good, maybe i’ll try to download some of the songs :)
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[quote comment="17160"]The Beatles rule! The track selection is interesting, but where’s Imagine? Or Yesterday?[/quote]
It’s in track 12.
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[quote comment="17208"]very few people know it, but i’ve loved the beatles since high school, and was fortunate enough to be able to buy a pirated mp3 CD containing all the beatles’ songs (i love pirated stuffs, so sue me!)
i wasn’t interested with the Love album because i love the original versions…but since you say it’s good, maybe i’ll try to download some of the songs :)[/quote]
You can’t find the pirated versions anywhere. I suggest that you use 600 bucks to good use for the original. It’s worth it. ;)
Also, those are still the original songs, they were just remixed, ;)
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Thanks for the review! Now I know this album is definitely worth buying. :)
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ZOMG hey fellow Beatles aficionado! Bought LOVE 2 months ago, and boy was I totally amazed! Gotta love the fab four. :-)
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hey, fanboy! :P
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Golden Slumber is my favorite Beatle song. :)
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[quote comment="17325"]Golden Slumber is my favorite Beatle song. :)[/quote]
I love the entire Abbey Road medley, too bad it wasn’t included in LOVE.
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i think i will get this album.. i love eleanor rigby
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i like lennon and maca’s post-beatles work more.
btw dude, i moved to http://benj.myjournal.ph
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[quote comment="17407"]i like lennon and maca’s post-beatles work more.
btw dude, i moved to http://benj.myjournal.ph/quote
Tried to listen to their post-Beatles work too, but it only felt like they were trying to outdo what they’ve done during their time as Beatles. So there.
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I agree, the remastering makes the album sound full and whole, but I can’t fully enjoy it since the wires on my E2C’s went kaput…
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anybody who appreciates real music is a beatles fan whether openly or not…
if you like music and dont know a thing about the beatles, you’re most probably an Orange and Lemons fan hwekhekhek
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All the tracks were remixed, including ‘A Day In The Life’
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I have mixed feelings about LOVE. I do think it’s something different to add to the Beatles collection and in that way it’s good. But I hate the idea of someone just hearing those versions and not the originals.
I think in a way LOVE is the Beatles for people with short attention spans.
Mr. Music Blog’s last blog post..John Lennon’s Real Love & Joy Division’s Isolation: An Essay
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