Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Meet The Beatles

I finally listened to the "new" Beatles album "Love." It's just a glorified mixtape, with not a single moment where the mashing up of the melody from one song merged with the lyrics to another song to make me hear the music anew or think of a tune in a different light. At one point, the French horn (?) from "Penny Lane" pops into another song at a random moment and it served no purpose other than a "Where's Waldo" sort of challenge. Most of the time, the songs were barely recast at all, with entire tunes playing out mostly the way they always did. Sure, some elements were brought to the fore while others were slipped in briefly from other songs, but basically most everything sounded pretty much the way you'd expect. When the ominous intro to "I Am The Walrus" began, I got a little interesteed. That's some truly spooky music and I wondered what they would pair it with. And it led into..."I Am The Walrus." Typical. When they begin the acoustic "Strawberry Fields Forever" and slowly build it up into the version we know, I thought, "That was done better on "Anthology" and works best of all with the video of George Martin talking you through it. Could this have been done better? Probably not, since it was a silly idea in the first place. Would I LOVE to hear just vocal tracks of all their songs and demos and rough mixes that only include some elements and isolated piano and guitar tracks and all the other possibilities that rush through the mind when you think about having access to the Beatles archives? Oh yes. Will I be first in line the day they release the Beatles boxed set with all those elements available for you to isolate and listen to and remix and mull over to your heart's content. You bet. Is "Love" fun to listen to? Of course. It's some of the greatest music of all time and sounds so good you gnash your teeth over the fact that their catalog hasn't been remastered. But no one should buy this until they've already bought and (repeatedly) listened to "Rubber Soul" and "Revolver" and "Sgt. Pepper" and "The White Album" and "Abbey Road." Good lord, they haven't even put out a proper version of "Let It Be" yet and we're getting this mishmashup? Please please please remaster the studio albums. Until then, I'll be pouring over these self-published books by Beatlemaniacs. If the fans had the power, the Beatles catalog would be treated right. Variety says we'll finally get the Beatles catalog remastered in 2007.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

The CD may be lousy but I just got back from Vegas and saw the show. For any Beatles fan, the show was no disappointment, and the sound system was mind-blowing.

Michael in New York said...

How does it compare to other Cirque shows? I have to admit the performance I saw on Leno have me pause --- it looked like Godspell set to Beatles music. But how bad can it be to listen to Beatles music for 80+ minutes? And to clarify, I'd give the CD probably 3 stars out of four -- it's certainly fun to listen to, just as ANY Beatles mix tape would be.

altmike said...

Boy I definitely like this more than you do. But then again I am not the Beatles fan that you are. For me, their music was overplayed particularly throughout the years that I worked in "oldies" radio. I find these semi-tweeked versions interesting because they offer just a little bit of spice- probably the sort of thing that would cause a diehard Beatles fan to jump off a roof. Did you have a chance to listen to the DVD in the deluxe set in Dolby 5.1 surround sound? I think the sound is awesome....

Michael in New York said...

The sound is definitely amazing. Just the vocals on the opener a capella number Because are stunning. I haven't heard in 5.1 yet, but I did play it on my new Bose radio/cd player which has great sound for such a small unit. For me, the Beatles are one of the few acts (like Sinatra) that I can never get tired of or need a break from. But since oldies stations tend to play the same 10 songs from every artist over and over again, I suppose even the Beatles can get old.

Anonymous said...

It was my first Cirque experience so I have no comparison. Lots of dancing/fewer acrobatics according to my companions. Costumes amazing, and special effects very cool. On the way out the usher said they are reworking some of the numbers and adding several new ones to the act. A work in progress.

Michael in New York said...

Good to know. I'd love to check it out myself (and I've never seen Cirque myself).