Picture yourself in a seat at a concert with John, Paul, George & Ringo playing all of their songs. Well, not all of their songs but a good number of them. The first time I heard the Beatles' newest release, LOVE, I felt as if I was hearing a Beatles reunion concert.
If the Fab Four were able to cheat death and defeat their embattled egos, this is what we'd hear at a reunion concert. Infusing yesterday's magnificent music with today's techonology, we get tunes that are as inspiring as their original recordings. We have to thank the Fifth Beatle, Sir George Martin and his son for this amazing production. And I've come to realize that behind every great musical artist there is an equally impressive producer; for every Alanis Morissette, there's a Glen Ballard, or System of a Down's Rick Rubin, or even Café Tacuba's Gustavo Santaolalla. What the Martins created, on one side, is essentially a live-like recording, without the incessant screams of raucous, female fans that usually marred their live shows early on, and on the other, a treat for our ears and musical palette.
The only shortcoming that I have noticed is the lack of cuts from their early albums. This could be due to the recording processes of the early 1960s, where they were unable to make or create multi-layered sound recordings as they did with their latter albums. Even with this said, I assume that nary a Beatles fan will find fault with this record.
I am a Beatles purist in some ways, but I never thought that I would be taken so much by an album that is in essence one, big Beatles remix record. I would consider each song a classic, that each should be able to stand on it's own; an immovable object of sorts. But in the context of this medium, the Beatles' music has become a kaleidoscope of aural delight.
It must be said that the Beatles are still very relevant in today's musical mainstream being that they released their first album more than 40 years ago! I had a conversation with a friend a few days ago about specific aspects of their music and how gutsy they were to release songs like Eleanor Rigby (what pop artist releases a song made entirely with classical arrangement and instrumentation?), Norwegian Wood (a song that's set in a typical 3/4 waltz style), and All You Need is Love (the opening bars alternate between 3/4 and 4/4 time). You'd be hard pressed to find such musicality in today's popular music.
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