Feel The Love

Earlier this year Cirque de Soleil was lucky enough to be given the right to score an entire show with the music of The Beatles. It is staged in residency in Las Vegas and is called Love. The deal with the soundtrack is pretty interesting. Sir George Martin (producer of so many of the original recordings) and his son Giles went into the studio with the original tapes and began to tweak and mash elements of old songs to create new ones. The reviews have been largely positive, but I remained skeptical. That is, until I picked up the record this week. It is 26 tracks of music you know but have never heard like this before. Apparently there are are at least 100 Beatles songs represented here, some in tiny fragments, others in close to their entirety. Having the original producer involved is obviously the key, as he knows his way intimately around the source material. The end result is a flowing, 78 minute mash up of old and new, some of it tweaked only a little, some of it tweaked a lot. There is also a 2 disc version, with the second disc being a DVD with a 5.1 surround mix that clocks in a slightly longer 81 minutes. This is the version I bought, and the 5.1 is a real trip. When I played this at work yesterday it generated a lot of interest and also a few of those all important "goosebump" moments. Those occurred mostly upon hearing some of the mashed up tunes - Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing, Within You, Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows. Some of the little snippets mixed into songs are also breathtaking. It is always a revelation to me when I hear familiar music tweaked like this, and this is no exception. If you are a fan of the band I think you will really dig this album. Here is a great example of one of the mash ups, as well as a pretty radical reworking of Lady Madonna.

Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite/I Want You (She's So Heavy)/Helter Skelter

Lady Madonna