Originally written on December 05, 2006

Sir George Martin, working in conjunction with the Cirque de Soleil has recently released Love, a sort of remix Beatles cover album for the famed theatrical group. It has the full support of the surviving Beatles and the estates of John Lennon and George Harrison.

It’s a bit like any cover album in that it is full of both the old and new and comes out as both brilliant and redundant. The old and the redundant come out of it being the Beatles songs with the Beatle’s voices and mainly the Beatle’s own playing. The new and brilliant are all in the arrangement and mix.

It’s all the same songs except that some of them have been slowed down a bit, and Sir George has taken various snippets and moments and slipped them into other songs brilliantly. He’s also added a little bit of his own orchestration to smooth it all out.

It is completely enjoyable to listen to, and quite a treat to hear how it all pieces together. But after a couple of listens, it all seems a little unnecessary. I keep saying to myself, ‘I have these songs already,’ and it seems rather pointless to have yet another grouping of them. To my ears, the novelty runs off pretty quickly and expect I’ll find myself reaching more for the originals more than I’ll ever be listening to this over and over.