Since The Beatles announced to co-produce a show surrounding the Beatles's music and creativity with Cirque du Soleil, every fans around the world was expecting the soundtrack album, and wondering what it would be like when it comes out. The result is a mash-up album of over hundreds of Beatles tracks, Love, produced by George Martin and his son Giles Martin. Fans may not be able to fly to Las Vegas to see the Love show, but this soundtrack album takes the place of the Beatles and Cirque du Soleil to tour the world anywhere, anytime.
Back in 2004, Dangermouse remixed the Beatles's self-titled The White Album with Jay-Z's The Black Album. The outcome was The Grey Album, and EMI issued cease and desist letters to various websites in order to stop the album's distribution over the Internet and P2P networks. So when Apple makes its own remix album Love, there is a rule #1 that all samples used on the album must be an original number by the Beatles.
There are lots of innovative and fresh remixes produced by Giles Martin on Love. During the start of the record, the breath-taking remixes of "Get Back" and "Glass Onion", it is like the start of an exciting journey. By combining "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Within You Without You" not only gives you a rare vocal performance by both John Lennon and George Harrison on one song, the lyrics and the music from both songs are a perfect match to each other. The various takes of "Strawberry Fields Forever" combined on a single track is a perfect illustration of the Beatles's creative process, and the song itself stands a lot in the Beatles's career, it is quite emotional to listen through it. The intro verse of "Octopus's Garden" was stripped down to the vocal only, and put on top of the string section from "Good Night" with some FX sounds from "Yellow Submarine", its singer Ringo Starr instantly becomes a legendary singer in the underwater world. The singalong of "Hey Jude" is, of course, included. In the middle, the music was stripped out and it simulates the a capella section that Paul McCartney often brings in during concerts. On here, it seems like the Beatles are on tour again. The only new music piece is a newly written orchestra section by George Martin, to be overdubbed on the acoustic demo version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps". Different to the mood of the original master version, the Love version has a warmth to it and the melody is very touching. George Martin claimed it would be the last musical piece he would write for a Beatles's composition.
Although there are loads of heavily remixed tracks on Love, some songs have only went through small bits of remix treatment or the original version was used, such as "Eleanor Rigby", "I Am The Walrus", "Help!", "Revolution", "Back In The U.S.S.R." and "A Day In The Life".
With the understanding that the Beatles songs from their latter period contain richer musical elements, there are only a few numbers from Beatlemania period that make it onto Love, where songs from the latter period contain the elements of rock, psychedelic and Indian music, which are the musical impact the Beatles brought into the Western music scene. The surreal and complex sampling on Love brings audience into the band's unlimited, yet unique, musical aspect. It is not hard to produce such good quality of remixes with today's digital technology, comparing to "The Beatles Movie Medley" released twenty some years ago, Love is much superior. Giles Martin and George Martin took few years to prepare the digitalised masters and choose the songs used for sampling, you can tell how serious they thought about the project is.
For usual listeners, Loves brings them enjoyment of the Beatles music. For Beatles fans, it has got a deeper meaning. Beatles fans can play the record over and over again, in order to spot which song is used to sample on the remix. This could be like a detective in search to solve a mystery case. After listening to the Love, fans are most likely to argue whether we should remix the Beatles tracks, that are so good in their original forms. Whatever the result is, I think Love tells you that once again, Beatles music is timeless, and it can be presented with a new face. Love brings the great talent and creativity of the greatest band in the 20th century, into the digital age of 21st century, extending the freshness of the songs.
Last but not least, do not miss the DVD-Audio edition, as the 5.1 surround sound brings out the refinement of the Beatles songs which you would never experience before until now.