I wasn’t sure what to think of the newest Beatles release, Love, when I first heard about it. It may seem a bit opportunistic to cash in on all the Beatles mashup craze, but then again, who better than George Martin to do a Beatles mashup. A peak at the liner notes however reveals that the project came from a very different place… collaboration with the Cirque du Soleil. But, really, it’s more than a mere mash-up anyway. To me, it feels more on par with the late 60’s Brian Wilson “patchwork quilt” approach of aural art and avoids the novelty of the whole mash-up movement, yet it is every bit as fun and fresh.

Many of the tracks are not dramatically different from the originals. With the stereo release I’m sure people could see it as yet another repackaging of the same tunes, but the high-resolution 5.1 release opens up a new world for surround sound enthusiasts and audiophiles. I for one am ecstatic to get high-resolution 5.1 mixes of “I Am the Walrus”, “Something”, “Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite”, “Come Together”, “Revolution”, “Hey Jude” and for goodness sake “A Day In The Life”. I would have paid well over $100 for that opportunity alone, but then again, I’m a looney audio geek. Martin of course stayed true to these songs, and they just sound gorgeous in 5.1 surround. Tim Young at Metropolis Mastering is on my radar now, as this may be one of the first surround releases in the rock genre that I would truly consider of “reference” quality (Beck’s Sea ChangeSACD being another strong candidate). I can definitely see myself reaching for this disc when acclimating myself with a control room for a 5.1 mix or when setting up a home theater. The stereo version was mastered by Steve Rooke at Abbey Road, and is also very good. Steve is one of my favorite engineers in the business today, so I expect no less. The stereo master isn’t quite equal to the superb quality of the Yellow Submarine SONGtrack that came out a while back though. The stereo Love seems a bit reserved or over-compressed on first listen, but this could be more an issue of the new mixes. It’s very difficult to compete with those original analog mixes. By the same token, it would be unfair of me to compare the high-res 5.1 master to the stereo 16 bit, but just understand that the surround is truly mind-blowing.

Martin arranged and recorded new strings for “My Guitar Gently Weeps” at his Air Studio, but beyond that, everything is taken from actual Beatles sessions. Adding string parts to Beatles tracks is not without precedence of course (see Phil Spector’s “Let It Be”). Criticism of such is not without precedence either, but this arrangement is quite tasteful and completes one of Harrison’s best recordings. This project really gave license for anything, and considering all that could have been done, it might even be a little safe at times. But with material like this, I too would be loathed to change the songs drastically.

But there are really creative combinations. “Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows” is just stunning. Ringo’s drum line from “Tomorrow Never Knows” (arguably the best drum riff ever) is perfectly suited to Harrison’s trance-like drone mantra. The transition from this into “Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds” is really, really clever. And the subtle manipulation of the rest of “Lucy” is just awesome. I think it breathes a new liveliness and drive into the track (and maybe partly erases the memory of that awful Elton John version). I also like that, on Strawberry Fields for instance, rather than sticking strictly to tracks from the released version, Martin uses bits of the alternate/demo takes which bootleg fans have adored for years. I feel like he could have gone a little crazier at the end of “Strawberry Fields” than the extremely baroque-pop treatment the outro received. It was unexpected though, I’ll give him that. It sorta Maccas-up a Lennon song to me though with that super-clean “Penny Lane” sound. By contrast, the end of “Mr. Kite” is awesome with the heavy “I Want You” and “Helter Skelter” mix. It is far more appropriate treatment for a Lennon track, and it may be my favorite mashup bit of the record.

The playful transitions between songs, which utilize a lot of the little toss-off ditties you hear on the original records, are quite nice and aid the flow of the entire album. “Gnik Nus” is eerily beautiful and indeed the kind of thing Lennon would have been all about doing. In fact, more than any of the others, I think John probably been the most excited about this kind of project with his love of sound manipulation.

The sound quality of the surround version is an audiophile’s wet dream. Well, duh. After all, the tracks are the Beatles with Martin/Emerick/Smith/Johns at the helm. The release itself is a sonic orgasm for everyone who’s been clamoring for years to get high resolution mixes of anything Beatles.

Raves aside, there are a few track that could have been better—“Glass Onion” for instance—or perhaps should have been eliminated completely—like “I Want To Hold Your Hand” which seems more like an effort to pull in the core oldies audience. At the end of “Something”, they combine “Blue Jay Way” and “Nowhere Man”, and it just doesn’t work. “Octopus’s Garden” is terribly awkward in the intro, but ramps up well enough. It is nice to hear the “ahhhh” guitar solo break in surround finally though. This transitions with a bit of “Sun King” (forward this time) into a very cute intro of “Lady Madonna”. The much reviled “Lady Madonna” has always been one of my favorite Beatles tracks (I never understood any dislike of that song), and while this mix seems to lose a little of the original’s guitar power, the transition into the guitar line of Hey Bulldog is quite interesting.

My conclusion is that this disc (particularly the surround version) is total ear candy and a lot of fun. If you are in any way inclined toward such thing, GET IT. I know it’s going to be on constant rotation in our home and in our iPods for the next several months.
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