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Release Date: November 21, 2006 Label: Capitol Related Sites: · Official Site · LOVE-Cards · Screensavers and Wallpapers Grade: B-

"What is this monstrosity?" was my initial reaction to hearing this "new" material. The music is undeniably the Beatles, but it sounds like some guy messing around with ProTools and too much time on his hands. Fortunately, for this project, that "guy" is Sir George Martin -- the man who originally produced records with the Beatles. Equally fortunate is that, upon closer examination, it's obvious that it's a labor worthy of its title.

With approval from surviving Beatles Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with widows Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison, Martin and son Giles have revisited the master recordings from Abbey Road's vault. Whereas the recent "Let it Be... Naked" stripped out Phil Spector's overbearing strings to expose the root sound, those layers are added right back this time around -- and then some. Not only is orchestration presented where none previously existed, we get mash-ups melding several songs into a wall of sound.

In a way, I feel vindicated. I loved the studio group Stars on 45, which recreated Beatles tunes and presented them as a medley, even scoring a #1 song in 1981 with such an arrangement. They were critically reviled for messing with the originals that we all knew and loved, and yet here we get something similar, albeit with the original artists and not session musicians.

I only received a 4-song sampler of the final album for review, and so can only comment on those selections. You can hear each of these songs in their entirety by clicking on the links in the table to the right.

"Strawberry Fields Forever" uses the technique of wedding different recordings of the same song. It starts with an early demo of John singing and progresses to the familiar version of the song. The ending features different snippets of other songs, concluding with the latter portion of "Hello, Goodbye".

Ringo Starr wrote "Octopus's Garden," and this version begins with just him and his drums. It also starts with strings, which kind of wrecks the children's song vibe that the original had. Of the four, this one probably strays the most from the "feel" of the original because of this. It ends with a portion from "Don't Let Me Down".

"Lady Madonna" really takes some goofy detours. Rather than McCartney's boogie piano beginning, it takes the beginning from "Why Don't We Do It In The Road" and takes a while to get going. When it stay with the original tune, it's fine, but clashes with the riff from “Hey Bulldog" in the middle section melding into Billy Preston’s organ solo from “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” and eventually segueing into Eric Clapton’s guitar solo from “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in lieu of the saxophone solo.

"While My Guitar Gently Weeps", on the other hand, is an example of the successful altering of a familiar song. It's actually George Harrison's solo demo that appeared on "Anthology 3" with new orchestration composed by the senior Martin. The beautiful acoustic guitar beginning slowly introduces the strings and offers no percussion. George Martin recalls that “'Yesterday' was the first score I had written for a Beatle song way back in 1965 and this score forty one years later is the last. It wraps up an incredible period of my life with those four amazing men who changed the world."

Without seeing the show I don't know how effective these particular arrangements are out of context, but that could be said of any soundtrack to a stage show or motion picture. The Beatles' music, whatever your thoughts on this alleged "tinkering", has never sounded technically and sonically any better. I wouldn't go so far as to say, though, that "all you need is 'Love'". Here's hoping this project will at the very least introduce a new generation of listeners to the influential music of the Beatles, which will in turn cause them to seek out their diverse catalog as they were originally presented. I'd give it a higher grade, but I don't want to encourage imitators. It was fun hearing these songs reinterpreted, but in the end, I can't help but think... "let it be".