The Beatles = Love

I recently stumbled across The Beatles – Love album in the New Releases of Best Buy last week. What I thought was another “Greatest Hits” album turned out to be one of the best put together medley of Beatles songs that span almost an hour and twenty minutes.

What the album actually is is best summed up from the official website:

Born from a personal friendship and mutual admiration between the late George Harrison and Cirque founder Guy Laliberté, LOVE brings the magic of Cirque du Soleil together with the spirit and passion behind the most beloved rock group of all time to create a vivid, intimate and powerful entertainment experience.

LOVE evokes the exuberant and irreverent spirit of The Beatles, as interpreted through the youthful, urban energy of a cast of 60 international artists. Using the master tapes at Abbey Road studios, Sir George Martin and Giles Martin have created a unique soundscape of The Beatles music for LOVE. The custom-built theatre at The Mirage features 360° seating, panoramic video projections and surround sound which will envelop the audience, who will experience The Beatles music like never before…

What they produced is what I’ve attempted many times with various Beatles playlists: a coherent flowing piece of music that sounds as if it was made to be that way. Some of the mixes are obvious, some are more subtle; on the opening Because the music is completely removed until the pound drums of The End slowly fade into Get Back. If you can at all imagine that, then you still have NO idea.

I’ve been stuck on it for a few days now (sharing time with the new Incubus album, Light Grenades, which is also very good) and the entire hour and twenty minutes of the album flash by each time I listen to it. With 26 total tracks on the album, you can imagine how that is no small feat.

Here’s the tracklisting, from Amazon:

1. Because
2. Get Back
3. Glass Onion
4. Eleanor Rigby/Julia (Transition)
5. I Am The Walrus
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand
7. Drive My Car/The Word/What You’re Doing
8. Gnik Nus
9. Something/Blue Jay Way (Transition)
10. Being For The Benefit of Mr. Kite!/I Want You (She’s So Heavy)/Helter Skelter
11. Help!
12. Blackbird/Yesterday
13. Strawberry Fields Forever
14. Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
15. Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds
16. Octopus’s Garden
17. Lady Madonna
18. Here Comes The Sun/The Inner Light (Transition)
19. Come Together/Dear Prudence/Cry Baby Cry (Transition)
20. Revolution

I can’t even begin to imagine what the Cirque du Soleil show is like with the music, but I know if it ever comes to town I’ll do my best to be there.