LOVE

What a LOVE-ly idea for one of the world's most popular musical bands to come together with the 21st century's greatest show on Earth, namely the Montreal based mind-blowing Cirque du Soleil. Nobody wanted THE BEATLES to end in 1970 after delivering some of the most catchy pop melodies of all time but all things come to an end and unfortunately for better or worse the band's record company has been cashing in ever since. The music of THE BEATLES has been recycled in every way possible with one pointless compilation after another. But every now and again a veritable flicker of creative mojo sparks allowing a project that honors the past while finding relevancy in the contemporary world. LOVE is actually quite different from a normal comp and a very inspired way to reanimate the Fab Four's classics in a mashup styled soundtrack that accompanies the live performances of the Cirque du Soleil.

Rather than tritely compiling yet another greatest hits compendium for the umpteenth time, the fifth BEATLE, George Martin along with his son Giles assembled elements form 130 different commercially released material together with demo recordings of THE BEATLES' entire career resulting in a veritable treasure trove of BEATLES mania reimagined for the 21st century. While LOVE officially features 26 separate track listings, many of these songs are medleys that bleed together as well as containing mere snippets of music and lyrics interpolated into key moments. While most tracks appear to sound identical to the singles released during the Fab Four's heyday, others such as "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" appear in unreleased demo forms although not always to my satisfaction (this particular acoustic track isn't as effective).

Completely remixed as well as mashed up, LOVE was one of the few post-BEATLES archival releases that found George Martin at the helm and his last effort before joining John and George in the great beyond with his passing in 2016. Crafted with precision and great care, LOVE was Martin's last labor of LOVE and it really shows in how well the many faces of THE BEATLES sit so well together in a constant consciousness stream of the 60s chart toppers. For example "I Am The Walrus" sits snuggly next to "I Want To Hold Your Hand" juxtaposing the mop top teenie-bopper early years (complete with audience screaming) with the studio-only psychedelia of the band's latter years that forged entirely new paths in the world of rock music. Graced with a shining crisp production, LOVE rejuvenates THE BEATLES experience in a way no other compilation of the last 50 years really has.

Given the mashup craze was going full force in the 2000s with artists like Danger Mouse and Jay-Z deftly blurring unrelated musical expressions together seamlessly, Paul McCartney expressed a passionate enthusiasm in the project as he himself had hired mashup artists for his own tours during the same period. Another interesting feature is that every format had different playing times with the CD running at 78:38, vinyl at 79:08, DVD-audio (80:28) and iTunes digital releases with bonus tracks that add up to 86:41, thus making LOVE a double album's length by 60s album time limits. Given all the music was recorded between 1963-1969, LOVE was given a modern technological upgrade and despite showcasing music decades old at the time of its 2006 release and succeeds in clearly demonstrating why THE BEATLES remain some of the top dogs of pop rock songwriting in the history of music.

A divisive release for sure as some scream exploitation of the classics while others praising the album as a relevant celebration of the past. I fall into the latter camp as i'm perfectly fine with artists revisiting and reinterpreting their own musical catalogue as long as they have found a unique and relevant angle for doing so. LOVE was probably a project nobody saw coming whether it be BEATLES stalwarts or Cirque du Soleil fanatics but every once in a while the cross-pollinating effects of two entertainment powerhouses actually comes to fruition in a meaningful and brilliant way. Perhaps it's not true that all you need is LOVE but it sure makes a great supplemental album beyond THE BEATLES' original canon.

Of course the album was a major success going double platinum in the USA and racing up to the top 5 albums chart in dozens of nations. Few things are as exhilarating as a BEATLES musical marathon and LOVE provided the perfect reunion album that never could be. As John Lennon famously said, "Make LOVE, not war" and with this collaborative effort with Cirque du Soleil, THE BEATLES could honor his profound wishes. THE BEATLES was a pop band with pop hits and engaged in pop culture in just about every way possible so to claim this sort of project was a sellout actually belies THE BEATLES' own cross-entertainment endeavors that included short films, animation and every possible form of merchandising possible. THE BEATLES were the epitome of popular culture and an album like LOVE only reestablishes the band's relevance in the world of music even some four decades after its last rooftop concert appearance. While most comps are rather unnecessary padding in your collection, this one on the other hand is magical mystery tour in its own right and one that John and George surely would've LOVE-d.