The Beatles - Love (2006)****
Here they are again, some 36 years after breaking up, with a top contender for album of the year. It's a mash-up, yes, but Sir George Martin and son Giles had the master tracks to mash and the results for the most part are stunning. even on the songs that sound the least affected, you can hear with extra clarity some of the background melodies, harmonies, instruments. The bass and beat are more pronounced making songs like Lady Madonna really pop. Blending various versions of a song like Strawberry Fields really makes it sound like a new Lennon composition. I think people who are intimately familiar with the original versions will be more pleased with this effort than others. Of course, the songs are pure gold and it would be very difficult to ruin them. It's quite a feat to take them, re-work them and make them glisten and gleam all over again in new ways.