LOVE: CD REVIEW.

Today marks yet another tragic anniversary of the senseless murder of John Lennon.

How fitting then, that yesterday, I finally went to Target and purchased the new LOVE album which is getting rave reviews. This is the music one hears at the actual Cirque du Soleil show in Las Vegas which opened earlier this year at The Mirage. It is probably the next best thing to actually going to the show, which many are calling brilliant.

My thoughts on this CD? Well, it is certainly quite beautiful to listen to. George Martin and his son have produced a most interesting sound collage: mixing Beatles songs on top of each other, blending them together, fading one track into another, and reworking classics with new digital techniques never before available. There really is nothing new here, but then again, I've listened to The Beatles ad nauseam at this point, and know their song catalogue like the back of my hand. To the ardent Beatles fan like myself, this is a satisfying piece of work, but nothing new nor groundbreaking. Many of the demos and alternate takes featured on the Anthologies are in here, which my ear by now is very accustomed to, but would sound terrific to a semi-Beatles fan.

What is fantastic here is the digital quality of some of the songs. I Am The Walrus never sounded more glorious and it's about damn time! For years, the best digital quality of that song was from the CD version of the Blue Album, and that was pretty atrocious, especially when the song goes into the bridge. On the LOVE album, it sounds crisp, clear, and downright majestic. Revolution also never sounded better, as do Here Comes the Sun, Hey Jude, Get Back, and other tunes so many of us are all too familiar with. Bass lines are enhanced, guitar licks sound fresh, new sound effects are used, and the songs sound as if they were recorded yesterday.

For the casual, amateur, or occasional Beatles fan, this CD should be a real treat. A must have. Why not shell out the fourteen bucks and get yourself something cool, something unheard of, something different? It is well worth it. As a Beatlemaniac, I would recommend this too, but don't expect anything new or super earth-shattering, except a new audio feast of some old classics.

This album gets three out of four possible stars.

Four, if you're high.