Customer Reviews

Love

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Of all the possible posthumous incarnations for the Beatles, here's one of the most unlikely - as soundtrack to a Las Vegas circus.

It isn't any old circus, admittedly, but Canada's arty, super-acrobatic Cirque du Soleil, whose current Las Vegas show, "Love", is modelled on the story of the Beatles and characters from their songs: "Eleanor Rigby", "Sergeant Pepper" et al.

More importantly, "Love-the-show" - the result of George Harrison's friendship with Cirque founder Guy Laliberte - involved producer George Martin disinterring the group's master tapes from the Abbey Road vault for he and his son Giles to remix and remodel.

The results blast "Love" audiences from a state-of-the-art surround-sound system that includes speakers in individuual seats.

And the first thing "Love-the-album" does, at least in its DVD surround-sound format, is to blow you away with sheer sonic wizardry. Set to a noisy dawn chorus, complete with fluttering wings, the three-part vocal harmonies of 'Because' arrive with the clarity of an ice blue sky. The chugging introduction to 'Get Back' hurtles out of the mix like a train. The pumping fairground organs of 'Mr Kite' reek of steam and sawdust. Hearing many of the familiar tracks is like viewing an old masterpiece after cleaning: the light is brighter, the shadows deeper. Here, the trebles tingle while the bass end booms.

Some of this is painstaking technical restoration. After the Beatles swapped touring for the studio, they and Martin became experts at squeezing a quart of sound into a pint pot, extending the limits of four- and eight-track recordings by 'bouncing down' tracks.

Today's technology has let the Martins reverse the process, giving instruments and voices more autonomy. Ever notice the pizzicato violins on the middle 8 of 'Something'? You will now.

The ambitions of "Love" go beyond renovation, however. Its 26 tracks are set in an ambient flow of sound collages distilled from hours of Beatles tapes and containing fragments and echoes of 130 songs in all. Frequently the effect is ghostly, as the stalking strings of 'Glass Onion' and a snatch of 'Nowhere Man' drift like ectoplasm down a corridor. 'I Want to Hold Your Hand' - one of the few numbers from the moptop days - surfaces from a scratchy haze of screaming.

The most ambitious songs emerge most improved. There is not, after all, much to be done with the rock'n'roll retro of 'Lady Madonna', whereas 'Strawberry Fields' and 'I am the Walrus' sound more than ever like avant-garde masterpieces. Harrison's 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps' (the slower version from Anthology 3) is given a sumptuous string setting by Sir George.

Throughout, the McCartney/Starr rhythm section has never sounded so heavy, or the group's vocal harmonies so sharp and affecting.

"Love" vindicates the Beatles' status as master musicians and conceptualists. Not only for the spirit of optimism they embodied but artistically, they remain the act to beat. On this evidence, no one else comes close.

My favourite track is 'Here Comes the Sun/The Inner Light'.

Neil Spencer

Listened to it in my car on the way home and my response was wow! Got home and put it on my soundsystem in the office and went WOW! Put the dvd disc on DTS in the home theatre and my jaw dropped. You cannot imagine how unbelievably incredible this disc is. George Martin and son have created a masterpiece. One can only hope that when the Beatles catalogue is released remastered they are given the same technological detail. The beatles have never been heard like this.

I won't comment on the remix, other than to say it is not gimmicky...congrats to George and Giles Martin!!

Worth the money. My guitar gently weeps, sounds like Paul McCartney is in the room with you. Must but for any one with a DVD-A.

I bought this as a collector. I enjoy the look of it but will keep it sealed. I cannot give it a complete rating

Every single Beatle song is forever and opens cans of memories, these songs are the best ever Beatles recording I had the pleasure to listen, the quality is superb and no distortions.
Sad not to have a video attached, but the fantastic crystal sound output beats it, you'll never get tired of listening to this DVD.
Hope more of these DVDs recordings are coming soon.

Along with the Amazonian rainforest, there can be few natural resources which have been ransacked like the Beatles back catalogue. Anthologised, lobotomised, and generally pillaged in the pursuit of commercial gain, public demand appeared to have finally exhausted itself with the middling response to 2003's unfortunately titled "Let It Be... Naked".

Until now. Prompted by a long-term friendship between George Harrison and Cirque De Soleil's founder Guy Laliberté, and given the blessing of the Axis Powers (Paul, Ringo and Yoko), Love is the latest addition to that bulging catalogue.

Essentially the soundtrack to the Cirque show launched in Las Vegas last July, "Love" is a jaw-dropping 80- minute mash-up of The Beatles' more accessible tunes, slavishly compiled by Giles Martin and overseen by father George, all delivered in sumptuous 5.1 surround sound.

Those fearing a train-wreck along the lines of Twin Freaks - The Freelance Hellraiser's remix assault on the Wings back catalogue - can rest easy.

Starting off with "Because", it segues into the drum solo from "The End", hammers into the opening riff from "Hard Day's Night" and then lurches straight into "Get Back" before you can splutter "Stars On 45".

From there it's a musical landslide of Beatleology ( "Eleanor Rigby", "A Day In The Life", "Here Comes The Sun" ), all overlaid with snippets from every nook and cranny of their back catalogue.

So we get "Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing" as one continuous ebb'n'flow of mid-period drugginess, "Come Together/Dear Prudence" as an acid-fried soundscape and - best of all - the cosmic drones of "Tomorrow Never Knows" and "Within You Without You" fitted together like a glove.

Wherever a song is allowed to stand alone ("Back In The USSR", "Revolution"), it arrives with double-tracked vocals, stripped back instrumentation or - why not? - the faint tinge of sitar.

If the scale is almost beyond comprehension, "Love" also represents a sonic Da Vinci Code for Beatles trainspotters, who could spend the rest of their lives arguing over whether the snare sound is derived from "No Reply" or "Paperback Writer".

Completists will enjoy a newly unearthed demo version of "Strawberry Fields Forever", but it is the Martins' obsessive quest for innovation which deserves the garlands.

Paul Moody

If someone were to tell you that a new Beatles album was out and it was made partially for Cirque Du Soleil, you'd probably remember the 1978 Peter Frampton/Bee Gees travesty and scream in horror! No worries here. George Martin himself (and son) have taken over 30 Beatles songs (and an uncountable amount of true Beatles special effects) and made a masterpiece. From the quiet, bird-chirping beginning of "Because" to the anthemic "All You Need Is Love", one is treated to a musical masterpiece. No song is presented in its entirety nor is any song given short shrift. Using original Beatles soundtracks and effects, each song is seamlessly sequenced into the next giving an almost psychedelic experience. In fact, some of the special sound effects will make you feel as if you'd taken more than an aspirin. The experience truly is one that anyone, even the most fanatical of Beatles fans, will appreciate. That's just the regular CD! If you play the DTS 5.1 DVD on a good system, your mind will be blown! This is one of those musical experiences that you just cannot believe was made so well, so exquisitely, so amazingly. It is the Beatles.

Okay, so i looked at all the reviews here before I bought this cd. I'm a big beatles fan and wasnt sure about how the songs were compiled and whatnot, but the raving reviews convienced me! And I must be honest, when i first started listening I didn't like it at all! Being attatched to the original versions, this cd was a huge change. But after listening to it for a while it has grown on me and I quite like it! sooo give this cd a chance!

Hope my review helped some of you

I have never heard them sound crisper, cleaner, on CD. Amazing. I am, always have been, a Beatles fanatic. I find this work absolutely beautiful - I love the new takes, I am especially taken with Because a capella and the new version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps. I cried it is so beautiful, it is so special to hear a 'new'(to our ears at least) George Harrison vocal, five years after he left us. So special. You absolutely must add this to your collection, if you appreciate how perfect these songs really are. Who else could do this, with so much class, but George Martin?

Who could have thought that these great songs could be improved on? Yet that is what the Martins have done. Bravo! I am normally a purist, but I enjoyed this album tremendously from beginning to end. It gave me the feeling of Beatlemania all over again, but updated to the 21st century. While some may say this is tampering with perfection, I say it reveals how endlessly creative the Beatles materials are, and how perfect they have to be that they can be made to sound fresh yet completely genuine and original. Most important of all, you will come away feeling that nobody but the Beatles could have done this. The sound is great. No previous incarnation of these recordings have been given such wonderful sonics. Go buy the CD right away!