The Beatles Love

Since when did it become a sin to produce music with broad popular appeal? Critics seem to be implying that because Love was designed around a high priced Vegas circus spectacular, George Martin and his son Giles copped out on the mash-up principal, yielding a watered down product; mash-lite, if you will. Yeah, so? Do these people forget who the Beatles were and what they did? This was the most commercially successful pop group in history. Yes, their music was consistently superior, moving, inventive and exciting, but it also charmed the globe. These weren't insulated, serious artists railing against a dim public that couldn't appreciate their work. They were trying to write hits, and their freakier instincts were almost always overruled by the equivalent of the UN Security Council veto. That's why the experiments of "What's the New Mary Jane" and "Carnival of Light" never saw the light of day. The one exception was Revolution no. 9, eight minutes of avant-garde brilliance that John rammed onto the White Album against strong protest.

The criticism started at the top, where Paul, upon hearing the final mix of Love, remarked that they "could have gone further". This is no doubt true, and Paul, always the Beatle with the strongest affection for the 60's most mischievous experimentation, is perhaps sitting in a more secure position than he was in 1968 when he battled John over inclusion of No. 9. But the name and reputation most on the line for this new album is Giles Martin's. He did most of the work. He had to produce a mix that played to an audience of real, live people, sitting in a crowded theatre, paying good money to be entertained, and if they're lucky, enthralled.

The route he chose was to stick to the songs, clean them up, trim them for time, and connect or augment them with mash-ups. Nobody is pushing any envelopes, though it is notable that any presentation that alters Beatles music in its pristine form is going to be open to howls of sacrilege. The fact that these voices are scant attests to the success of the project and to the simple dictum that John favored - they're just songs, ya' know.

The set begins with the a cappella Because, ending with a reversed Day in the Life piano chord resolving into the opening guitar chord of Hard Day's Night and tidbits of The End, finally coalescing around Get Back. This leads into a truncated version of Glass Onion mixed with heavy doses of Hello Goodbye, most effectively Paul's falsetto cries from the end of each verse. From there the mixes become generally more conventional. One exception is the surprising version of Drive My Car, which seamlessly fits in parts of Taxman, What You're Doing and The Word. While the ghost of Stars on 45 lurks in the background this mash is so successful it leaves you wanting more. Probably the highlight of the disc is the coupling of Within You Without You's melody with the rhythm track from Tomorrow Never Knows. This works so well it may alter your hearing of the originals.

Overall, the result is more conservative than some would like, but there's one attraction here that all can agree on. Never has the Beatles material been heard with such sonic clarity. I Want To Hold Your Hand, with its crunchy guitar intro, actually sounds heavy, by any standard. There are times when the crystal clarity, combined with my confounded expectations, made me nearly "lose my shit". In its best moments, like the intro to Lady Madonna, or the end of Hey Jude, it's like hearing this music for the first time, and that can be a wonderful gift for a jaded fan like myself. I'm recommending this highly and waiting for more.