Customer Reviews

Love (CD + Audio DVD)

5 star:		(212)
4 star:		(35)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

For anyone who's a serious die-hard Beatles fan who thought they heard 'every little thing' the group ever did (the hours of 'Get Back' bootlegs, the mono 'White Album', all the 'rarities', Anthologies, and all the original LPs then CDs) will be amazed and impressed at what Sir George Martin & son did for 'Love' -- it must be heard, especially in 5.1 surround sound, to be believed. The original idea that George Harrison and Guy Laliberte (founder of Cirque du Soleil) to make a soundscape of Beatles music for a CDS show has been wonderfully realized. Songs we all heard for decades and hundreds of times over sound new again -- more so, the 'mash-up' concept literally re-invents the songs -- hearing 'Mr Kite!/She's So Heavy/Helter Skelter' yesterday for the first time was astounding -- the riff of 'Hey Bulldog' that makes a brief appearance in 'Lady Madonna', the string arrangment put to the demo of 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps', the newly remastered and remixed 'I am the Walrus' (finally!) -- it's a new day for Beatles fans. Some might view the Beatles' catalog as a sacred cow that should remain fixed and 'as was, as always should be' as they recorded it, and not be 'mashed-up' (all the superimposing of parts of one track onto another, time-shifting and altering the recordings to match tempos and keys). Understandable, since how indeed can really improve upon what they did way back when? But I very much enjoy 'Love' -- and appreciate that in with today's modern recording (Pro Tools was among the credits), Martin & son were able to present the timeless and beloved Beatles tracks in a new light, while making it clear how incredibly gifted the Beatles were -- you can hear all the instruments, vocals, sound effects better than ever before. While 'Love' might not be the best choice for a casual fan (one who has the red and blue best-ofs and/or '1'), it is an aural bonanza for a serious fan, in particular of the 'Revolver' era onwards with a focus on the psychelic years. To paraphrase the dearly departed George Harrison, I dig 'Love'!!

The stereo CD contains 78 minutes of music. The DVD surround sound version on DVD disc album is slightly extended version with 81 minutes of music.

FIRST OF ALL THE SURROUND IS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After being asked by the remaining Beatles, Ringo and Paul, along with Yoko Ono Lennon and Olivia Harrison, to make experimental mixes from their master tapes for a collaboration with Cirque du Soleil, Sir George Martin, The Beatles legendary producer, and his son Giles Martin have worked with the entire archive of Beatles recordings to create LOVE. The result is an unprecedented approach to the music. Using the master tapes at Abbey Road Studios, Sir George and Giles have created a unique soundscape. The release of this album, which is also featured in the Cirque du Soleil/Beatles collaborative production of the same name at The Mirage in Las Vegas.

This album puts the Beatles back together again, because suddenly there's John, Paul,George and Ringo.
The music is stunning. I think the most amazing thing about it is that you can pull it apart and all the elements carry with it the essence of the entire song.
George and Giles Martin highly original work in creating the LOVE album gives us a genuinely new Beatles album. It makes us respect even more, if that were possible, the creativity and brilliance of the band behind the greatest catalogue in the history of recorded music.

The 5.1 disc is a DVD-Audio/DVD-Video hybrid. The audio is presented in high-resolution 96/24 5.1 surround on the DVD-Audio part of the disc. The DVD-Video part carries 5.1 surround in DTS and Dolby Digital as well as a PCM stereo mix. This DVD album is designed to be played on DVD video equipment but will carry no video component.

This album is a true masterwork. Produced over many months by veteran producer George Martin and his son Giles, this album - especially in the 5.1 DVD-Audio format - reveals both the sheer quality of recording and performance of the original multitrack recordings, and the enormous possibilities of the modern digital recording studio in the hands of true masters of the craft.

Many of the original multitrack masters had a multitude of instruments crammed on to just a few tracks: disentangling them to permit the remixes present on this disc must have taken weeks on its own. Yet here you will find elements from the original songs presented more clearly than ever before, alongside elements lifted from other songs and spun in forwards, backwards and sideways. You'll hear things clearly you could never quite hear before, and some things you simply never knew existed.

Tracks from the early days feature quite traditional mixes while later, more psychedelic offerings are brim full of interesting little features that repay multiple listening, especially in surround. The audio quality is, quite simply, stunning: the DVD-Audio surround content is at 24-bit, 96kHz, which means, essentially, that you're hearing the masters as they were heard by the Martins at Abbey Road when they played them back - no other audio system can offer this. Even the CD is excellent, with none of the over-compression so prevalent on modern recordings.

There is only one new piece of recording here - a poignant new string arrangement for "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" recorded at Air - every other sound you hear is from the original mulitracks. The 26-track album is a more or less continuous segue of songs, some including transitions that contain elements from several different numbers, with a natural flow, development and conclusion.

Yes, it's the soundtrack to a show; yes, you have literally heard it all (almost) before; but in another way no, you have never heard this before - and you should take a listen. Congratulations to everyone concerned.

Be sure to buy the DVD version if you have a halfway-decent surround system (especially a DVD-Audio player, though any DVD player will play this disc in surround or stereo), though the CD sounds fine - and leave your preconceptions at the door.

The Beatles new album Love, which stems from the hit Cirque du Soleil Las Vegas extravaganza of the same name, is out of this world. If you think you've heard everything there is to hear from the Beatles, think again. This remix project, that's been subtitled a mash-up of the Fab Four's music, is just that. More than one hundred of their songs have been mashed up into twenty-six tracks clocking in at seventy-eight minutes. Originally, the idea of doing something similar to this came from George Harrison a few years before his untimely death in November 2001. In the mid-90's, he became fast friends with Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberté and the two of them had discussed a visual production set to the Beatles' music. Unfortunately, it wasn't until a year after Harrison's death that Laliberté put his head together with the Beatles' producer George Martin, and the ideas started to flow. The thought of this production was so exciting it actually brought Martin out of a decade-long retirement. Martin recruited his son, Giles Martin, a record producer in his own right, and together they worked diligently for over two years to create the most exciting "new" Beatles album since the entire band last laid down tracks in 1969. All in all, the 26 cuts on this collection is one trip back to the psychedelic age of the late 1960's but carries a sound that is as pristine as any new recording is for 2006. The album kicks off with an a cappella rendition of "Because" taken from the Abbey Road set. From there the journey turns into a trip that makes the Magical Mystery Tour seem dated. "Get Back" is treated to an introduction that begins with the familiar one-chord opening of "A Hard Days Night" which then is mixed seamlessly into the White Album gem "Glass Onion," all the while sampling "Hello, Goodbye" and "Strawberry Fields Forever." Speaking of Lennon's "Strawberry" masterpiece, that particular track is one of the many highlights among highlights, as the Martin's chose an alternate take that will take your breath away. The track "Yesterday" was tricky because it may be the one song that George and Giles thought might be overplayed and not welcome. What to do? What they did was an ingenious thirty-second introduction of "Blackbird" before hearing Paul's vocal on the first notes of the aforementioned landmark recording. Problem solved, beautifully. Other tracks that literally gave me goosebumps were Harrison's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (which was superbly remixed with a new string arrangement by the elder Martin that adds a certain vulnerability to the classic) and "Eleanor Rigby" (which also samples Lennon's "Julia"), while "Something" transitioned into "Blue Jay Way" which melts into the next track, "Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite," which blew me away. "Octopus's Garden," which sampled "Sun King" in its delivery, was sublime. Speaking of "Sun King," you may notice that track #8 is one you don't recognize by name, but you'll recognize the sound. Its title is "Gnik Nus," which is actually the anagram for "Sun King." Giles turned the cymbal backwards on "King" and in turn also reversed the vocals for a fabulous innovative reinvention of the composition. I could list all twenty-six tracks and tell you how very unique each one is, but I'm afraid I would have to write three parts of this review to fully explain the genius of this entire album. The Beatles changed the course of pop music. This album respectfully extends their legacy. And in the end, like the last song says, "All You Need Is Love."
Footnote: If you want the full experience of Love, I implore you to purchase the special edition that includes the audio DVD disc. The sound on this 5.1 DVD is so extraordinary that you'll hear these songs like you've never heard them before. The slightest instrument and vocals come alive as if they never before existed. This audio DVD gives the familiarity of these songs something that's new and vibrant.

First let's get this out of the way--"Love" is the soundtrack to a show and that's the reason it exists. The bottom line here is that the remixes even if they differ very little from the final versions will make many of these songs feel fresh again to Beatles fans that have heard them a million times. Heck it might even convince someone raised on Nirvana or listening to Cat Power to give them a try.

The 5.1 DVD/CD is the way to go. The various mixes on the 5.1 version are terrific highlight elements that were only hinted at in the CD version and even the original catalog. The best mash versions of the songs on here are truly inspired George and Giles Martin combine the rhythm track from "Tomorrow Never Knows" with George's "Within You Without You" to truly stunning effect. Occasionally some of them do sound a bit like "Stars On 45" but the bulk of them sound wonderful.

The same can be said for "Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing" and even "Come Together/Dear Prudence". "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" features Harrison's acoustic demo (which appeared unadnorned on the 3rd "Anthology") with new orchestration by the Martins. "Strawberry Fields Forever" features the progression from John's demo, to the first two versions the band cut to stunning effect as well. All of these are highlights of this album. All of these certainly deserve four or five stars.

Equally as good are the new remasters of classic Beatles recordings including the first completely true (**purists note I said TRUE not the half stereo/half mono mix on "Magical Mystery Tour") stereo mix of "I Am The Walrus". While all the tracks sound stunning in either their new stereo masters/remixes or 5.1 remixs there isn't anything new here that a Beatles fan doesn't already own. It sounds a heck of a lot better than the CDs currently on the market for the band (with the exception of "Yellow Submarine Songtrack" and "1")but it's still the same classic songs. That's not a bad thing it's just that their whole catalog has been due for an upgrade for some time now.


Nevertheless Beatles fans will enjoy hearing the familiar strains of classic Beatles songs some altered a lot while others are altered a little. Like the "Songtrack" release this isn't anything new but will be enjoyed by Beatles fans but can't replace the band's classic back catalog which sorely in need of being upgraded.

Love was created by Beatles producer George Martin and his son Nigel in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil for a Las Vegas stage show. It is being called a Beatles mash-up album, but it is a little different from your usual mash-ups. Unlike the infamous Grey Album which mixed Beatles music with Jay-Z vocals, everything here is from the Beatles themselves. Also, many of the songs are true mash-ups, but rather they have snippets of other songs tacked on near the end of the track. None of the song combinations are truly startling or revolutionary. That being said, the DVD audio version's sound is simply amazing. The songs leap out of the speakers with a new clarity that makes for a new listening experience to songs you've probably heard a hundred times each. This makes one hope that they will release the complete Beatles catalog in 5.1 surround sound.

What could anyone honestly expect from The Bealtes other than perfection? Of course, that's precisely what we get with "Love."

The band will never need validation as the best in recorded music history. Nonetheless, this CD reworks the well known chart-topping hits just enough to make them pertinent and contemporary for today's listeners, meaning an entirely new generation is destined to discover these songs anew.

George Martin has done his usual superhuman exquisite job in the studio. There's never been a more pristine recording. If you've got a monster sound system, crank it up. You'll really hear and appreciate the imaging of the instruments and unparalleled harmonies.

Seamless meshing of multiple Beatles song samples into a single tune might be the most brilliant aspect of many notable accomplishments here. Auditory senses are bombarded with the familar, presented in the most unexpected combinations. The results are staggering. The realization is that every period of The Beatles' career naturally segues with any other.

The generous catalogue of tunes herein is plenty to satisfy anyone. Sure all of us would like a few other personal preferences included. Yet I challenge anyone to say which of these should have been omitted. What is more, try to pick your favorite amongst them -- impossible!

I initially was concerned that having been to The Beatles Cirque du Soleil in Las Vegas, my perception was heavily colored before listening. But after playing this with three others who haven't seen the show, their reactions are equally powerful.

In summary, "All You Need Is Love. Love Is All You Need"

The Beatles "Love" is a gift to restore your faith in music and rejuvente feelings that insist you sing aloud as the CD plays.

"Love" will probably be the closest thing to a new Beatles album that I will see released in my lifetime. I was born about a year before John Lennon was shot. After discovering the Beatles, in my early teens, I felt like I'd been denied something extraordinary. Here was a man who could sing very well, write great songs, and perform them in such weird ways. I have never, to this day, heard anything as bizarre and full of ideas as the White Album. Maybe it was the time when they were making the albums, but I doubt that was all. The Beatles' albums show me how to make great art. You can't make it in a vacuum; you can't always make it alone. The Beatles were a group of talented individuals, coming together, to make something special.

With "Love", George Martin has proven himself as an essential member of the band; that is, if there was any question of that to begin with. The Beatles were great at experimenting in the studio, but it was always Martin who formalized those experiments. It was Martin who, during a lunch break, recorded and sped up an organ for the solo in "In My Life." It was also Martin who recorded a different and, in my option, much more focused outré to "Glass Onion" (for evidence of what it sounded like with Lennon's cut, please refer to the version on Anthology 3). Martin made sure that, no matter what instrument was used, what process it took to get a particular sound, it still came out sounding like a good pop record.

Here, we have the songs deconstructed. "Glass Onion" is an experiment as daring as "Revolution 9", but with a beat. "I Am the Walrus" is in full stereo, making it more disorienting (for this song, a good thing). "Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing" is three songs in less than two minutes. These songs are ingrained in our DNA; we hear them in the grocery store. We hear McCartney playing them at the Super Bowl. For Martin and son to bring out the original inventive spirit in which they were created, lo those many years ago, is an achievement.

If anyone wondered who decided all the vocals should go on one channel and the guitars and drums on the other in those songs on Rubber Soul and Revolver, I think "Love" proves Martin is that man. In the 5.1 mix, the vocals are prominent on the center speaker, while the instruments are often panned hard to the left and right. The two rear speakers are used for ambience, and the occasional surprise. This makes me happy. The best part of the recording quality of a Beatles record is that you can hear the discreet parts of the song. Each instrument, each person clapping, even the occasional stray studio sound can be heard. The listener is the one who makes a recording complete, and in the case of the Beatles, they knew that and created songs that reached out for completion. This is still the case with "Love."

This album should be remembered for two main things. The first, more prosaic item is that this will hopefully show how to make an album in 5.1. You can use multiple speakers and not have a wash of sound (or even a wall of sound). You can isolate tracks in speakers and still have them fit in with the larger sound. It's an impressionistic approach to mixing - sit next to one speaker and hear one part of the song, but step back and hear the whole thing. It's a good trick.

The second reason this album should be remembered is for the people who made it. The Beatles showed us all how exciting it can be to create. Their songs resonate to this day because you can hear the people making the music, can actually feel the joy that went into each track.

It is an exceptional combination of artistic talent, craftsmanship, and technology that brings us "Love." As is always the case, it takes the most effort to reach the simplest truth.

It's hard to believe that this music was recorded between 35 and 40 years ago - the Martins have done an outstanding job of cleaning up the tracks and mixing them for 5.1 Surround Sound.

The album was hyped as a "mash up" - in which Beatles songs were blended together. The album doesn't live up to the mash up hype - for the most part the songs remain faithful to the original recordings. There are a few tracks that have some blending, but they are the exception rather than the rule.

What wasn't hyped was the new 5.1 surround sound mix, which is absolutely mindblowing. This is the best Surround Sound DVD Audio I have ever heard. I have an Acura TL with DVD Audio and most of the DVD Audios have been the conventional CDs with some ambient noise thrown in the back speakers for effect. Not so with LOVE, this DVD Audio makes full use of the surround system and provides a unique experience for some Beatles classics.

The Martins did an incredible job of cleaning up the master recordings - every song is crystal clear - as if it were recorded on the latest digital recording equipment rather than the analog reel to reel tapes of the 60s. The Martins then took each instrument and placed them appropriately to create a unique soundstage. For example - in Elenore Rigby - the violins play in the background while the voice stays front and centered. During Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds - the drum beats sound as if they are thundering from the sky. The guitar in my Guitar Gently Weeps is so clear that even a casual observer could pick out the chords being performed.

The Martins selected a good set of songs for this album for any Beatles fan. It tends to favor more songs post 1966 - but they are great songs.

I highly recommend the DVD Audio version of this CD - not for the "mash up" but for the incredible production value.

I always find the opinions of true music fans an interesting read and it was fun to read all the impressions submitted. So--here is my 2 cents. I was interested in hearing the beatles in 5.1(which I think is the way recorded music was meant to be heard)but I entered cautiously--this is the Beatles--be careful--don't screw this up. Well...all I could do was smile as it went from song to song. Simply amazing and it reminds us how great the Beatles were. The range-how many new musical ideas they introduced us to--there will never again be anyone or any collection of music that will have this type of impact on the world of music--never! (this is coming from someone who is not a Beatles fanatic)The Martin boys did an amazing job with the new mix. I hope they are considering to go 5.1 with the whole catalog--hopefully Mr Martin will steer the project. I don't think anyone else could have pulled this off. Don't you think if the Beatles were around today they would be recording in 5.1??Please..listen to this in 5.1. Listen--smile--remember--sing along. It doesn't get any better than this.