rashbre central: all you need is love

Saturday 9 December 2006

all you need is love

love
Love is the Beatles soundtrack to the Cirque du Soleil show of the same name. There's some clever but generally fairly subtle re-mixes of well-known songs, with some interesting a capella pieces and some overdubs from mixed tracks. The remastering is generally strong with a crisp feel to the vocals, a pumped version of the McCartney bass and only the Starr drums a little 'rolled off' presumably becasue of the tape recording quality.

I enjoyed the re-ochestration of some with dashes of other tunes dropped in without really losing the feel of the original, and the sheen of the original Abbey Road record washes in for the tracks from that era. I didn't find it gimmicky and some casual listeners may think its a simple mapping of the original tunes into a blended mix. What is also striking is the simplicity of some of the tracks, with harmonies of voice and very gentle instrumentation.

But there are some classy reconstructions here. "Mr Kite" with "I want you" driving away in the background. "Strawberry Fields" morphing from a demo tape at the beginning into the full production by the end and then adding some extra pieces from "Piggies" and elsewhere on top. "Julia" and "I am the Walrus" juxtaposed and "Within You, Without You" with "Tomorrow Never Knows." Clever, not gimmicky.

Its made me want to listen to some of the originals again and its good enough to make me (a Beatles, not an Elvis person), nearly miss my road turning today whilst I was listening to it in the car. Thats what others say too.

Yup and semolina pilchards, climbing up the Eiffel tower is in there along with the weeping guitars and hand holding. And tomorrow I will be in Strawberry Fields.

eleanor rigby
strawberry fields

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