All You Need is Love

So… a new album was released today. Maybe you've heard of the band. They're called The Beatles, and – well – they're kinda good.

Of course, Love isn't a "new" album in the traditional sense. Songs like "Lady Madonna" and "Help!" have been around since the ‘60s, and their multiple re-releases (greatest hits compilations; remastered albums; mono releases; stereo releases) haven't changed the actual structure of the songs.

This is why Love is so interesting.

Produced by Sir George Martin and his son Giles, Love is a collection of innovative Beatles remixes, with all tracks taken from the band's master tapes. This might sound like sacrilege to Fab Four purists, but Love isn't just an experiment for experimentation's sake. It's clever. It's interesting. It's also really, really good.

The Martins have made musical collages by fusing demos and alternate takes with the original recordings we've all learned by heart. They also swap parts from song to song, which means the piano solo from "In My Life" shows up during "Strawberry Fields" and the opening chord from "Hard's Day Night" jangles its way into the beginning of "Get Back."

You can check some Love tracks on MySpace. And while it's very, very odd that The Beatles are on a social networking site owned by Fox, it's still nice to stream the music for free.