Real "Love"

After an extended dispute centered around the both parties' claim to the trademarked name "Apple," the Beatles added their catalog, which had been digitally remastered in 2009, to the iTunes library last year. Today marks the iTunes debut of the most recent release (to date) from the official catalog, 2006's fantastic remix album Love, mashed up by George and Giles Martin for use in the same-titled Cirque du Soleil show. As an added incentive, the iTunes purchase comes with two mixes of songs that had never been included with Love before. Unusually, iTunes is showing the decency of making these tracks available individually (at the unfortunate-but-standard cost of $1.29 each), without remaking a purchase that many Beatles fans had made years ago. So to most, not much news - but new Beatles music is new Beatles music.

The tracks themselves are "The Fool on the Hill" and "Girl," and as with most tracks from the album, each mix flirts with other songs while fundamentally leaving the original form intact. The former new release is the more interesting of the two. It begins with a pitch-altered snippet of Indian drone ostensibly snatched from "Within You Without You," which leads into an all-new, chime-filled intro, reminiscent in spirit to the minor-key piano intro from the version released on Anthology 2 but sounding unlike any other officially-released version of the song. The instrumental break is marked by the addition/up-mixing of more wind instruments than previously there/audible (either McCartney on his recorder or one of the flautists on the track), giving it a punchy feel matched by an amped up drum fill leading back into the prechorus. A brief snatch of the backing track from "Mother Nature's Son" before the last verse ends the tweaks.

"Girl," by contrast, is relatively untouched. The guitar plucking in the second verse is more emphasized in this mix than on the original version, and as on "Fool on the Hill," quiet drones are audible in the background. The only other noteworthy change is the addition of the opening acoustic riff from "And I Love Her," which reannounces itself throughout the song and is a nice addition. The most notable aspect of "Girl" in this context is probably just its inclusion, which rather shockingly marks only the second significant appearance of Rubber Soul material on Love (along with "The Word," which shows up in a medley with "Drive My Car" and "What You're Doing").

In all, they're hardly essential additions - particularly tacked as they are onto the end of the album, standing out rather sharply from the sweeping flow of the rest - but completists will find plenty to enjoy and would be well-served to drop the few dollars to pick them up.