The Beatles remix album, Love, was at the top of my Christmas list -- right up to the moment when I actually heard it. The BBC was kind enough to make it the "album of the week" a while back, which mercifully saved me from having to buy it. The top item on my Christmas list is now a voodoo doll of Sir George Martin, together with a large supply of pins.
I am a big fan of mixing musical genres, as a perusal of my CD collection would quickly reveal. (Reggae tribute to Bob Dylan, anyone?) One of my musical highlights for this year was hearing the warm-up act at a Waterboys concert do an acoustic folk version of "I second that emotion". (The Waterboys were good, too). But "Love" is nowhere near as ambitious as that. For much of the time you can think that you are listening to the original versions of the songs; then, suddenly, there is a bar or two of another song, which makes about the same impact, and is about as welcome, as interference on the radio. Elsewhere there are attempts to splice things together: for example, a "Blackbird"/"Yesterday" track that has the intro to "Blackbird" lead into the lyrics and instrumentation of "Yesterday". The result is not a happy one. (I suppose even George Martin couldn't do it the other way round, since "Yesterday" has very little in the way of an intro).
I know Paul McCartney may need a little extra cash in the near future, but it's hard to see why he and Ringo went along with this travesty. Before George Martin became the Beatles' producer, he was best-known for producing comedy albums. So I suppose he's gone back to his roots with this album, because "Love" is a joke.
No comments:
Post a Comment