Love (The Beatles, 2006)

Watching the Cirque de Soleil show Love was an interesting experience because I was basically watching a soundtrack being performed live before my eyes. I must have listened to Love about a hundred times prior to seeing the show in Las Vegas, so it was like I knew every remixed, mashed-up note of the soundtrack going into the venue.

I've mentioned before that I really do not like cover versions of Beatles songs, even by artists I really enjoy. That Grammy tribute to the Beatles? Skipped it. However Love isn't covers, it's mash-ups and created by the hands of father-son duo George and Giles Martin. Between the studio albums and all of the outtakes of the Anthologies, they had more than enough material to assemble the mother of all mash-up albums. Other than a few bird noises on the opening track, "Because", and a new string section to prop up the Anthology version of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", it's entirely Beatles recordings.

Most of the song selections favor the post-Revolver era, but that isn't surprising as they were probably logging 100 times more studio time than in first half of their recording career. Primarily because of the show itself, but also likely because of the "gapless" album the band helped pioneer, the songs generally flow from one to the next with no substantial breaks, at least not silent ones. Also, many of the songs are edited down a bridge or a verse to accommodate the length of the CD. This is about the only thing that threw me when watching the show was a few extended areas and a couple "new" tracks, as they weren't limited to the running time of a CD.

As far as individual song impressions, there are a few truly outstanding moments:

• The explosive "Get Back"/"Glass Onion" combo really draws in the listener.
• The transition from "I Am the Walrus" to "I Want to Hold Your Hand" makes my hair stand on end (in a good way).
• The "Drive My Car" section throws so many different song elements together it truly becomes a force unto itself. More cowbell? Please!
• Tacking a little "Helter Skelter" to the end of "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite" now makes me afraid of the circus.
• "Strawberry Fields Forever" is sheer brilliance, just for mixing together the earlier versions from Anthology 2; the coda is pure gravy.
• Eric Clapton can now say he played on "Lady Madonna".
• They managed to make "Come Together" even eerier thanks to Paul's ghostly coda to "Cry Baby Cry".
• The transition from "Hey Jude" to the "Sgt. Pepper" reprise with the isolated horns and count-in is really cool.