First off, most of this was mixed by George Martin's son, Giles, under the guiding hand (we are to presume) of his father.
Track Listing
1. Because
This a capella version of Because gets circulated on bootlegs. The track was cleaned up impressively, like all the bootleg-chopped cuts here, but I personally find the pausing for an extra measure a little goofy. I suppose it works well for the Cirque de Soleil show. The added orchestration sounds nice and all-in-all this is a nice choice for an opener.
2. Get Back
Opens with a seriously sweet mash-up with the opening guitar strum from A Hard Day's Night and then goes into the beginning of The End and then Get Back for the rest of the song.
3. Glass Onion
The one is a bit of an oddball as far as track placement and flow in my opinion. I suppose Giles wants us to think of his remix being an onion made of glass. There's a jump-cut slice and dice of Glass Onion that sounds clunky and some Strawberry Fields "nothing is real" refrains are added.
4. Eleanor Rigby/Julia
Some modulated synth-tinged overlays of the vocal harmony of Eleanor Rigby are repeated during the extended opening (a part from the end of the studio track) to add an extra air of a haunting atmosphere. A bit of Julia is there for transition purposes.
5. I Am The Walrus
The remastered version of this song sounds sumptously splendid. There is a part where the drop-out has been tweaked to sound more dynamic.
As will become a pattern with most of the rest of the tracks, there is an ending tacked on, in this case, it's a bleed into some white noise that then goes to crowd noise for the next song...
6. I Want To Hold Your Hand
This sounds surprisingly really great coming out of I Am the Walrus as the white noise becomes screaming fans. It combines the energy of the crowd losing it at their early live shows with the clarity of the studio track to great effect.
7. Drive My Car/The Word/What You're Doing
Personally, the original production of Drive My Car on Rubber Soul sounds better than this version to me. Some horns are added that compliment it okay, but I'm not sure how much they are needed. It goes into What You're Doing seamlessly because Ringo's drum sound is the same in both songs and features some rather marvelous-sounding underpinnings of Hammond organ from Drive My Car. A chorus from The Word is thrown in at the end, as are some "beep beep beep beep yeah"s from Drive My Car.
8. Gnik Nus
This is Sun King with a backwards vocal and is intended to sound like chants. The backwards lettering of the song title is sure to remind SY fans of side 2 of the Sonic Youth ep.
9. Something/Blue Jay Way
Something sounds fantastic remastered and a very cool outro from various parts of Blue Jay Way is added at the end. This is the Harrison highlight of the disc.
10. Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite!/I Want You (She's So Heavy)/Helter Skelter
This is probably my favorite. When I Want You (She's So Heavy) kicks in, it whomps you over the head. On first listen, I found it too abrupt. Now, I raise my hands in acceptance of divine glory when I hear it. Helter Skelter is barely discernable at all.
It's a bit different to not hear Here Comes The Sun after She's So Heavy though.
11. Help!
It's left entirely intact except at the very end we hear the complete raw uncut "help me oooohhhhhh."
12. Blackbird/Yesterday
I'm amazed. This starts off with some guitar from Blackbird which sounds like a piece from the White Album version. I'm not sure about that since I have, I think, seventeen alternate outtake versions of this song.
The Blackbird guitar goes into the acoustic version of Yesterday. Some orchestration is added to make it all a bigger sound like the regular studio version of Yesterday. It's very, very well done, and I'm someone who is not the biggest enthusiast for the completely Paul-penned songs.
13. Strawberry Fields Forever
Puzzling stuff all around with this one. The original song is a mash-up in itself with a major key change. This features John's plodding demo version starting it off, adds some cheesy instrumentation and then finally gets around to showcasing some of the best production Martin ever did (from the studio track) closer to the end. At the outro though it cuts to Hello Goodbye...it's all a bit much, and a tad too ambitious.
14. Within You Without You/Tomorrow Never Knows
Opens with Tomorrow Never Knows with extra-flange for effect and to space things out enough to make the transition to the instrumentation of Within You Without You. It's a good one.
15. Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds
Presented here from the studio track only many annoying touches (horns or synthesized horns or whatever) have been added that do not add anything to anything...a failure.
16. Octopus' Garden
Perhaps the lowest point on Love. The song has never been one of their best. It would have been interesting to hear Ringo's opening monologue from the unreleased take of Good Night to open and then have it go into Yellow Submarine and have a Harrison "Dr. Robert" interlude in there too. As it is, the song employs the strings from Good Night along with the vocal only of Octopus' Garden then goes into a shortened version of the song.
17. Lady Madonna
I'm so happy this one is included. It opens up with Sun King breathiness and goes to the ending Lady Madonna background craziness and then into the song. It gets the mash-up treatment towards the closing with the also often overlooked Hey Bulldog. Some guitar is overdubbed that is mostly right on, but maybe not completely. The ending horns feel tacked-on a bit.
18. Here Comes The Sun/The Inner Light
It starts of with the tablas of Within You Without You and The Inner Light with "Love, Love, Love" refrains from All You Need is Love faintly heard in the background. The transition to Here Comes the Sun is slightly clumsy.
Some The Inner Light instrumentation and vocal harmony are utilized as a segueway into...
19. Come Together/Dear Prudence/Cry Baby Cry
Here comes most of Come Together with some outro Dear Prudence guitar utilized to make the transition to "Can You Take me Back Home" which was itself tacked-on to the end of Cry Baby Cry on the White Album. When I made a mix of outtakes, I included an alternate Cry Baby Cry and then to simulate the album track, I added an outtake of Paul's little "can you take me back" thing.
Sadly, there's no Cry Baby Cry-proper here, only Paul's ditty from the ending.
20. Revolution
I can't tell much difference except the ending has been compressed a little. One would assume that Revolution No. 1 and Revolution No. 9 would figure into this track, but they do not.
21. Back in the U.S.S.R.
There's less airplane at the end...fantastic song though.
22. While My Guitar Gently Weeps
Unlike Yesterday (Love Version), this one does not work. The acoustic version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps (which is so great it's on par with the full-blown album version) is complimented (badly) by some very cheesy Beatlesesque-but-quite-hyper-at-times string arrangements.
23. A Day in the Life
Starts off with some studio chatter and then plays through the song as you're used to hearing it. There's a bit more oomph in the orchestral ramp-up at the end that's been inserted.
24. Hey Jude
There's many finished-sounding versions of this song out there in bootleg-land. This sounds like it's mostly from the studio version with a dampened background at the very beginning and a semi-a capella section towards the close.
25. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
This is the reprise version to signal the listener that, "we're sorry, but it's time to go," and that "it's getting very near the end."
26. All You Need is Love
I suppose this is the encore of sorts. The Cirque de Soleil show is, after all, known as "Love" as is the remix album. The Good Night string sweep from that song's close and some studio chatter is added to the very end.
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