Album Review

By Jeffrey Lee Puckett
jpuckett@courier-journal.com


No album released this year has better songs than The Beatles’ “Love,” which is kind of like saying sex is fun, but that doesn’t neccesarily mean it’s an unqualified triumph.

Father-son producers George and Giles Martin — George, of course, was The Beatles’ primary producer — took 37 songs and spliced them into a 26-track epic that serves as the soundtrack for Cirque du Soleil’s stage production, also called “Love.” It’s somewhere between a mix tape, a mash-up and a best-of.

But what the world doesn’t need are more Beatles best-ofs and mix tapes, no matter how cleverly constructed; in the end, most of “Love” is an elaborate curiosity that makes you want to hear the original albums. It’s certainly worth hearing, but how often?
The most revelatory tracks are pure mash-ups, a technique that merges disparate songs to create something both old and new. That normally means using different bands, the most famous example of which is Danger Mouse’s “The Grey Album,” which combined “The Beatles” (also known as “The White Album”) and Jay-Z’s “The Black Album.” But if you’re using only one band as source material, The Beatles is the one to use.
When the Martins slow Ringo Starr’s vocal track for “Octopus’s Garden” and add the string arrangement from “Good Night,” it’s a startling transformation. Dropping the Sabbath-like guitar riff from “I Want You” into “Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite” is also inspired, as is the combination of “Drive My Car,” “The Word” and “What You’re Doing,” all of it anchored by Ringo’s drumming.
Too often, however, the Martins only mildly tweak the originals — offering more of a typical remix than anything else — and then tack on elements of other songs near the end. It all flows beautifully, and small surprises are plentiful, but the handful of truly spectacular tracks make you wish for what might have been.

Jeffrey Lee Puckett is SCENE’s pop music editor and oversees Scene’s music page.

Online: Find past album and concert reviews, or ask Jeffrey Lee a question, at courier-journal.com/music