Messrs K and H assure the public their production will be second to none

'Love', Sir George Martin's remix of Beatles classics is very, very good. I'm listening to it as I write. I have it in mp3 form which doesn't do it justice; the clip of 'Get Back' I heard on the radio today was brilliant in its clarity, far better than the original I remember, no doubt thanks to modern audio technology.

You will scarcely believe me, but 'Octopus's Garden' has at last been made into a great Beatles/Martin song. This is the Ringo song as (one imagines) George Martin would have mixed if he'd had more ideas at the time (as if he didn't have enough!). Something about the way this album moves makes you feel like it was all happening again. And that is actually the case, because, although some Beatlers think it's heresy, let's not forget that George Martin 40 years ago was doing just the same thing: mixing and mashing tapes of the Beatles and blending them into songs. He virtually invented the technique and we loved it then. So why not now?

And I wouldn't care if 'I Am the Walrus' was played on a comb and tissue paper, it's still my favourite song. 'Sun King' played backwards and reworked as 'Gnik Nus' shows that at 80, Martin still has that special gift that helped the boys; Lennon still sounds like Lennon, and the classic Beatle harmonies are beautiful even in reverse.

"I never thought I would get this deeply involved with the Beatles again. It's been a real journey but we were doing something worthwhile," Sir George said. I just find it amazing that he's still able to do it, as he seemed like an old man when I was 10 and heard my first Beatle song, 'Love Me Do', in 1963. Of course, I was only 10.

Almost every Beatle fan will want this album, and, while I try not to predict the future, I think it will be a favourite at parties for people who remember the Fab Four, and those who missed out.

"The result is a 'soundscape' of familiar Beatles' songs. Some, like Help!, are used in almost their original form, whereas others have been ambitiously remixed.

"The keyboard of Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite dissolves into the plodding guitar of I Want You (She's So Heavy).

"Strawberry Fields Forever builds from Lennon's acoustic demo into a psychedelic swirl of sounds that incorporates bits of Hello Goodbye, Baby You're a Rich Man, Penny Lane and Piggies."
BBC

Update: I now have the CD and everything I wrote is true. The album has a few minor glitches I don't like, but all in all it is very good.

Tagged: beatles, music, rock+music