Yahoo! Music Album Review

Released on 20/11/06
Label: Parlophone

On paper, this sounds like a truly horrible idea: take one Beatles catalogue, give it to George Martin's son Giles (previously famed for working with such heavyweight talents as Kula Shaker and Hayley Westenra), smash it on the floor, transport it to Vegas, then rebuild it as one continuous 80-minute entity and present it to thousands of tourists in an all singing and dancing circus spectacular. Rabid fans could be forgiven for thinking that "LOVE" would be an aural realisation of the cover to notorious 1966 US album "Yesterday & Today", featuring John, Paul, George and Ringo dressed in blood-splattered aprons, doll parts and raw meat.

Even the concept of a "mash-up", of blending something borrowed, something blue and creating something new, seems very 2004. That, of course, was the year Brian "DJ Danger Mouse" Burton, created his "Grey Album" by splicing together Jay-Z and The Beatles - an illegal hybrid that, ironically, inspired full major label wrath and an order to cease and desist. Although not until after so-called "Grey Tuesday", when over one million internet users downloaded this bastard remix in its entirety.

Anyway, the big shock is that "LOVE" is fab. Really fab. The songs are fab (obviously) but, against all odds, the concept of condensing The Beatles' career onto one CD actually works brilliantly; right from the acapella opening of "Because", which wafts in on a wave of birdsong and segues neatly via the opening clang of "A Hard Day's Night" and a snatch of strings from "Tomorrow Never Knows" into, finally, Macca's galloping bass line to "Get Back". Utterly exhilarating, the sound is crystal clear, with any extraneous noise given a 5.1 sonic wipe from Martin's technicolour J-cloth.

Wisely, rather than tamper outrageously, the producer's son has decided to tinker delicately. His weapon is the surgeon's scalpel, not the butcher's cleaver. Aside from a few sound effects, the only major surgery is the spanking new string arrangement that underpins "My Guitar Gently Weeps". The result sweeps grandly through your hi-fi, although you do miss the more gritty intentions of the original "White Album" version.

Other medleys become even more eargasmic by subtracting, rather than adding, sounds. The unlikely melange of "For The Benefit Of Mr Kite" with "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Helter Skelter" is particularly combustible; the clattering percussion of "Tomorrow Never Knows" drags George Harrison's wistful "Within You Without You" to a much darker place; and a demo of "Strawberry Fields Forever" literally expands by the second, taking in the medieval keyboards to "Piggies" and ending with a thunderous drum track. A less welcome Ringo effort comes in the shape of "Octopus Garden", but "LOVE" certainly makes you fully appreciate Mr Starkey's contribution.

The heavyweight guns ("A Day In The Life", "Hey Jude", "Sgt Pepper's…", "All You Need Is Love") are wheeled out for the finale, but all props to Martin for not ignoring some of the band's more esoteric moments. Whether it has pricked greedy ears in record company marketing departments is another matter (and you can just picture an accountant currently rifling through the collected works of Zeppelin and The Stones) but "LOVE" is no nostalgic Disney-fied ride around Liverpool in an open-top bus. This huge leap of faith has paid maximum dividends. The most genuinely interesting addition to The Beatles' canon in years, it actually makes you want to dig out the originals and fall in love with the music all over again.

    by Adam Webb