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 | The Beatles "Love"
by Tim Wilson on Feb 7, 2007 at 5:14:21 pm |
I've been a Beatles fan since I first heard them in 1964. (I admit it -- a little late to the game.) Yay verily, a Beatlemaniac. Collected trading cards, had the original Yellow Submarine lunchbox, started speaking with a fake Liverpudlian accent (really) -- and that's just the stuff I'm willing to admit here.
Oh yeah, and I know their music really, really well. Still listen to 'em for at least a couple of songs most every week.
Which is why I'm floored by the new "Love" album. You can look at the track listing and say, hmmm, not an especially orginal selection...but the thing is, they're entirely reworked in two directions.
At the most basic, George Martin said that when he remastered the Beatle albums for CD, he was very careful not to "improve" them. He wanted to keep the sound as close to the original as possible. Not this time! He made dramatic changes to the mix, opening wide spaces between the instruments, and bringing background layers to the front.
More interesting, his son Giles combined bits of songs in very intersting ways -- the percussion on Tomorrow Never Knows slipping under Within You Without You, stacking up Drive My Car with The Word and What You're Doing...and on and on. One more before I move on -- a demo version of Strawberry Fields slipping into a polished take on the original...with bits of Penny Lane and Hello Goodbye sprinkled in.
There are also some sweet demo versions thrown into the mix, including an acoustic solo take on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps."
I could keep going, but it's enough to say that Love is just short of a miracle. I actually wish the Martins had taken their efforts even further...but you know what? It's still pretty darn close to a miracle. It's stayed at the very front of the rotation since I picked it up.
Check it out.
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