I’m having a terrible time keeping my jaw from dropping.

I only heard of the “new” Beatles album from a friend, , a few days ago and promptly went berserk. Indeed, Love isn’t a “new” album technically speaking, but at least it’s not just some crappy “best of” compilation either. The initial appearance of the word “remix”, however, almost sent me running for the hills.

The term does bring back memories of J.Lo and some rapper dude introducing terrible “kttcch, kttcch” sounds to an otherwise decent song. For a die-hard Beatles fan (like me!), messing with their music is practically sacrilege, and anybody who attempts to do so should be hanged, no questions asked.

Unless he’s George Martin, of course.

Probably the one thing that gave much credence to Love is the presence of the original Beatles producer. After all, Martin is the man who made the original albums possible (along with the band itself of course). Who could be more trustworthy?

Though I certainly realize that the production of Love decades after the Beatles released their final album is an obvious attempt to cash in on their still widespread popularity, I’d like to think of it as a tribute, too. To purists, it may seem unacceptable to tamper with the originals, but Beatles music has always been about going against the grain, anyway. It’s always been about stepping out of the stereotype, leaving the ordinary behind to go beyond what other musicians could only dream about.

Yes, this is a major fan-girl speaking.

So what is Love exactly? Let’s just say George Martin and his son found themselves in Beatles’ heaven, working with the master tapes from Abbey Road Studios. Twisting, exchanging, mixing and, at times, reversing the originals, the father and son tandem brought new life to Beatles music, providing a refreshing twist to songs performed decades ago.

It’s an absolute wonder that the music — everything about it — sounds incredibly fresh and new. The music is unbelievably young, capturing the heady era when the Fab Four broke into the scene and changed the way the world heard music forever. More than the songs, though, are the beautiful transitions arranged by the Martins using Beatles tracks as well. By the third track, I had given up on guessing which song the guitar/bass/drum lines came from. The entire CD plays like an enormous unbroken track, transitions weaving in and out like a tangled web that brought the entire Love album together.

I haven’t recovered from the “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows/Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” transition yet. Seriously, it’s so beautiful it broke my heart. Anything I write here now about it won’t do any justice, so I’d rather you go listen to it yourself.

It’s not all hits, though. I didn’t exactly like the intro to “Strawberry Fields Forever”, though the drumming midway did blow my mind. Let’s not be so nitpicky, though, and recognize the fact that there are absolutely more hits than misses in the album.

The percussion intro to “Here Comes The Sun” is divine, the “Blackbird/Yesterday” transition is seamless, God played the guitars on “Revolution”, I fell in love with John Lennon all over again in “I Want To Hold Your Hand” (my absolutest favorite Beatles song of all time), the drum solo on “Sgt. Pepper” is absolute love.

I could go on and on, but you get the point right? Certainly, the genius that was The Beatles should be credited for this enormous success. Their music has the power to transcend time and live forever. Much credit, however, should also go to the Martins. Regardless of what people think about this album’s commercial inspirations, listening to the finished product clearly shows one thing: this project is a labor of love.

The Martins could’ve taken the easy path and just thrown in a number of Beatles songs, collaborated with pop stars and upped the cheese factor by inviting Sean Lennon or something. The entire album used nothing but music from the Beatles themselves, refusing to taint their legacy with cheesy rip-offs just for the cash.

At the end of the last track, “All You Need Is Love”, John Lennon speaks up to sign-off. Somehow I know this isn’t the last we’ll hear from The Beatles, and tomorrow will be a better day just for that.

PS: Another remastering project seems to be in the offing. Hope this one includes “Across The Universe”. I’ll wipe the drool off my chin now.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 8:36 am and is filed under fangirl, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.