The Beatles: Love Transcript

UMC.org Music Review

The Beatles: Love
Label: Capitol/EMI
Sound/Style: Technologically enabled reinterpretation of past Beatles’ recordings

By Steve Morley

(UMC.org)—The Beatles often addressed the subject of love, but their most groundbreaking work looked beyond romantic concerns, often gazing inward for deeper revelations about the mind, soul and spirit. Because they pursued their search outside of mainstream Christian doctrines, they clashed with conservative society; truth be told, the band nearly became a religion in itself. Their influence has reached virtually everywhere, and their popularity shows no signs of waning some forty-odd years after first emerging from beneath shaggy haircuts now considered anything but radical. Similarly, the cutting edge recording gear that once captured the world’s most famous pop music is laughably provincial next to the digital devices that slice and dice the ingredients on The Beatles’ recently released Love.

The sonically reworked overview of the band’s career is no mere retrospective; co-created by Beatles’ producer Sir George Martin and his son Giles, the end product proves the music to be both enduring and malleable. The song selection doesn’t stray terribly far from well-known favorites, but many of these are reassembled, sometimes using fragments of rare source material. Even the familiar sounds fresh, given the rearrangement of song elements and the superior audio quality featured here. All this might seem gimmicky or unnecessary, but the spirit of experimentation that characterized The Beatles’ productions makes this approach a justifiable extension to their body of work. Furthermore, the involvement of original participant, George Martin, makes the collection a bona fide Beatles project--like it or not.

George Harrison’s interest in Eastern music and spirituality, known to alienate some Beatles fans, is revisited here on several tracks. The most notable is "Within You, Without You," fused with John Lennon’s "Tomorrow Never Knows," a number inspired by The Tibetan Book of the Dead. The tribal drumbeat of the swirling Lennon composition adds urgency to Harrison’s meditative message about the dangers of avoiding spiritual introspection: "(People who)/Never glimpse the truth/ Then it’s far too late/ And they pass away…"

In the somber "Eleanor Rigby," the typically chipper Paul McCartney depicts the lonely life of an elderly parishioner and her dutiful if uncharismatic pastor, shown mending his socks and writing a sermon "no one will hear." McCartney’s lyric is piercingly poignant and humane; yet it can’t disguise the implication that religious practice doesn’t necessarily guarantee earthly fulfillment: "Eleanor Rigby died in the church and was buried along with her name/ Nobody came/ Father McKenzie, wiping the dirt from his hands as he walks from the grave/ No one was saved."

While John Lennon’s acerbic and dreamily abstract sides are well represented, his lovely and somewhat uncharacteristic "Because" provides an outward-looking, almost eternal moment as well as a reminder of the pure transcendence the band could occasionally conjure. It opens the album, recreated as an unaccompanied vocal performance with pauses added for effect: "Because the wind is high, it blows my mind/ Because the wind is high/ Because the sky is blue, it makes me cry/ Because the sky is blue."

While the Liverpool legends left behind some inspiring ideas, their primary appeal is still their memorable music, mingled with the emotional knee-jerk responses experienced by their legions of fans. In the end, the immaculately revamped classics on Love will easily elicit as much affection as they offer.

Audio Clips

"Get Back"

"Glass Onion"

"I Want to Hold Your Hand"

"Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing"