buy buy love

welcome back. i hope everyone had a pleasant holiday. mine was just fine, thank you. i bought good presents, received a few nice things, turned a year older, experienced the new year in an ER because of a friend, and overall felt the "magic of the season."

but let's get back to business.

among all the nice things i received was an album entitled simply, Love. it's by a band called The Beatles.

and let me tell you something. it's very, very good.
















what i'd like to do today is explain to you what this album actually is. because it seems to me that people aren't really sure what to make of this. "another compilation? is that really necessary?" that was my first reaction, and i know i'm not the only one.

then i read a review over at Slant. it gave Love five stars and i was confused. how could a compilation receive five stars? i went on and read and learned. although i wasn't completely illuminated, i came to understand the basic premise: Love wasn't a compilation at all. it was more of a remix or reworking or something like that. songs were being blended into other songs and the results were good. this was enough for me to express my interest, and thusly, i received it as a gift.

and then i was in my car driving some long distance. i decided this was the perfect time to crack open the cd. slowly, carefully, i undressed it of that protective cellophane. then i removed that crisp disc from its home and slipped it into the stereo.

it began silently. i turned up the volume to see if i was missing anything. but nothing was happening. i waited.





















and then!

it starts with the cool a capella notes of "Ahhh ahhh." BECAUSE. Because the world is round and all that. only voices like on the anthology. no instruments. and the pauses - oh, those pauses! - pauses between each line of the song. this is an epic beginning from the start! it is a signal that something great is about to happen, as it lays the groundwork with that calm-before-the storm, gentile sound. it is like the start of the 1812 overture. no seriously.

and then the action is afoot. a wall of sound fades-in from the distance, some mixture of familiar Beatles' sounds, now blending to create a new unique sound all its own. as it takes full crescendo Paul's familiar "get back" becomes the song, but with new energy not found on the "Let It Be" cut. honestly, "get back" has never been among the great Beatles songs. not in my mind, anyways.

but on LOVE it's undeniable. it has the energy of a concert version along with the clarity of a brand new song. and that's reason #3 to buy LOVE. every song sounds brand new, like they just recorded it. it's akin to watching Star Wars in THX for the first time. the sound quality alone makes this a worthy addition to any Beatle fan's catalog.

the truly fascinating aspect to LOVE, though, is absolutely in the way songs are blended together to create, in essence, the feeling of having new Beatles songs. imagine taking "being for the benefit of mr. kite" and attaching the end of "she's so heavy" to it. that is accomplished on LOVE with - can i say great? - with Great success. and of course henry the horse dances the WALTZ --> BOOM! guitars blaze in, mixed with the psychedelic /carousel chimes of mr. kite.

i understand that none of that probably made sense. but i had to try to explain. you see, LOVE isn't a remix so much as a collage of Beatles' sounds, flowing from one song to the next often without seams. it's the singing from "within you without you" over the wicked music of "tomorrow never knows." it's an acoustic start of "blackbird" that leads into "yesterday." it's "all you need is love" with the final notes of "goodnight" at the end, with sound bites of the band concluding a studio session. it's "strawberry fields" as if john started it alone and was slowly joined by the band.

it is perhaps the greatest mix tape of all time. longtime Beatles producer george martin created this with his son, and together they have pieced together these familiar, comfortable songs to fashion something of a Beatles symphony.

LOVE is to be martin's final work for the iconic band that he's been with for so long. and with this effort, it's as though martin is saying goodbye to a band, to music, and to a time he loved to be apart of. and the joy for the listener is to hear how intimately martin knows this music. that he's able to smash it to pieces and rebuild it into something wholly satisfying is a credit to his amazing expertise as a producer. and it stands as a testament to his relationship with John, Paul, George and Ringo. he not only knew these guys. he was one of them.

***

the need for this essay is almost unnecessary at this point. the word is quickly spreading about LOVE with places like borders, starbucks and all the like spinning it non-stop. so i know this might have a short shelf life. but i just needed to express how stunning it is for myself. it reminded me, again, how much i love the Beatles. i feel lucky just to be alive to experience this work, simply called LOVE, which must now be considered the coda of the fab four's catalog. if it all started with "she loves you" and their big break on ed sullivan, then LOVE is the conclusion to all that. trust me when i say: it's not to be missed.