Various - Across The Universe [Deluxe Edition]
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Free Music Notes for Across The Universe [Deluxe Edition]
Free Music Review: The Spirit of the Times
Hit: 5 Stars
I love this movie! It was a stroke of genius to use the music of the Beatles combined with a multitude of touchstones both actual and symbolic to create an odyssey through the mid-60s and early 70s. While it is surely a flight of fantasy and often plays fast and loose with actual history I think the filmmakers and actors have exactly captured the journey that our culture and many of us who lived through those years experienced in a very personal way.
Starting with the fresh and exuberant rise of the Liverpool sound, personified by Jude, a dockworker, which soon found its way to America (as does Jude), the movie follows the rise of the counterculture focusing on the twin energies of the music and the antiwar movement. But it's not done in any even faintly objective way. Rather the movie expresses it through the individual and their experiences. Jude, from Liverpool; Max, the upper middle class college dropout who ends up in Vietnam and comes back physically and emotionally damaged; Lucy, Max's sister, who becomes caught up and radicalized by the protest movement; Sadie, a blues rocker who mirrors Janis Joplin; JoJo, the black guitarist reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix, seeking refuge from the riots and violence of an inner-city ghetto in his music; Prudence the Midwestern cheerleader and emerging lesbian. And the cast goes on, each portraying a different aspect (and often a specific personality) of the journey. All are changed by their immersion in that chaotic and often contradictory era and its events.
I especially liked the way the movie captures the spirit of those times, moving from innocent joyful expression to deepening social awareness to psychedelic rebellion to radicalism and social unrest and violence to disillusionment and finally coming to an integration of all that was experienced into a belief and an affirmation that "love is all you need".
And all along the way it is underscored and given texture and depth and expression by the music that surely was in a way the soundtrack of those times. The song choices are right on. The arrangements bring new life and energy to songs we've heard a thousand times. The music interweaves with the personalities and settings and events. And the actors are amazingly talented in both the expression and development of their characters but also in their singing ability and to make the songs flow naturally as a part of those characters.
I really liked the movie for all those reasons but I love the soundtrack too because even without the visual dimension of watching the film it conveys all I've mentioned. The music was, and for many still is, the heart and soul of the transformation we experienced, a living legacy of a change that continues to reverberate through our lives and our culture. This soundtrack brilliantly captures the deeply emotional and soul-changing experience we now refer to as the Sixties.
Free Music Review: Inspired!
Hit: 5 Stars
Truly amazing accomplishment. This one movie seems to do what no other has accomplished, providing a glimpse into what the sixties were like for typical Americans. Not Quadrophenia, nor Help, nor Harold & Maude, nor the Magic Christian, Woodstock the film, or any other film from the era has accomplished. (please correct me if I'm wrong.)
I fell in love with this film immediately for its wild, inspired feel but I never knew the details of sixties events and yet I found the film intrigued me so much that it made me start looking into what the truth might be. I thank the film for bringing alive a history that I'd always passed over. Bono's character with the bus got me started. I knew it wasn't just Magical Mystery Tour but thanks to Wikipedia it led me to the real magic bus belonging to Ken Kesey, the author of the Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test, and his cross-country trip in a bus named 'further,' allegedly to see the 1964 World's Fair in New York. Along the way he made sure to turn on as many people as he possibly could, as acid was legal at the time. His attempt to meet with Timothy Leary at his farm in Albany was unsuccessful, as Leary had just come off a 3-day trip and was in no condition to meet with him. So Bono's character was somewhat accurate, as is Izzard's portrayal of Leary.
A second event was the explosion in the apartment of the war-protesting radicals, a true life event for the Weather Underground. I'd never known about these events and likely never would have learned about them without this film. So for me I can wholeheartedly recommend the film on many levels. Not only for the direction, camerawork, script, artwork, acting, and music, but also for its ability to create a sense of curiousity where none ever existed before.
The music deserves special mention as these versions are able to make a person hear and feel the Beatle's music in entirely new ways, giving glimpses into perhaps what the songs may really have meant to the original authors. I have a suspicion that if I were to look into what they intended their songs to mean I would find that someone has already researched this beforehand and used their inspiration for how the songs are staged in the movie. So the film may even be educational in the sense that a person can learn more about the music and the artists without having to read volumes of boring books that consist of interviews with their tailors.
For me the best scene is not even in the film. The special edition has deleted scenes and out-takes, one of which is Izzard doing his entire take on For the Benefit of Mr. Kite outside the circus tent. I highly recommend the special edition due to this gem.
Free Music Review: Get the 31 track deluxe edition!
Hit: 5 Stars
What a wonderful soundtrack this is. I don't know how I missed seeing this movie when it came out in late 2007 but better late than never. "Across the universe" is a musical movie and like last year's "Mamma Mia!" (which was based on songs by swedish supergroup ABBA), it is based on songs done by the Beatles. It is so well done, you'd swear the Beatles wrote the songs specially for the movie.
Now, the only music by the Beatles I own is their compilation "1" so this is a great introduction to more music by the Beatles to people like me. Like loads of reviewers have stated, seeing the movie helps one appreciate this CD much better. The songs are performed (credibly I must say) by the cast of the movie.
I love every single song on this CD (I have the deluxe edition with 31 tracks) and I'm glad to see practically every song used in the movie is here and chronologically arranged too. A few favourites are the Gospel treatment of "Let it be" (by Carol Woods & Timothy T. Mitchum), Joe Cocker's Bluesy take on "Come together" (the best remake of this song I've heard, far superior to efforts by Michael Jackson or Sugababes), "Strawberry fields forever" (by Jim Sturgess), "All you need is love" by Jim Sturgess and a Janis Joplin channelling Dana Fuchs (she reminds me of Anastasia and Taylor Dayne), "Happiness is a warm gun" and Hey Jude" by Joe Anderson (though I miss the harmonising on the latter song by Jude's mom in the movie version), a Jazzy "All my loving" by Jim Sturgess, and "I want you (She's so heavy)" by Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, T.V. Carpio & Ensemble.
Bono's take on "I am the walrus" is so trippy and fab, previously the only version of this song I'd heard was a noisy and boring remake by UK rockers Oasis. Evan Rachel Wood does a lovely acoustic rendition of "If I fell", while a Hendrix-channelling Martin Luther McCoy does a gentle soulful performance of "While my guitar gently weeps" (with a beautiful weeping guitar solo). A few of the songs are given slightly different treatments on the CD (the afore mentioned "Hey Jude" being an example, and also the "She loves you, yeah yeah yeah" bit left out from "All you need is love") and if the director is to be believed, the songs were performed live while shooting the movie, accounting for the very believable performances.
Some Beatles purists will understandably raise hell over the "desecration" of these classics but I think this is a superbly and sensitively done soundtrack which will introduce the music of the fab four to a newer audience.
Free Music Review: A Fun, Epic Set.
Hit: 5 Stars
Julie Taymor's "Across The Universe" is one of those artistic, daring musicals that fell under the radar upon release but has still managed to catch many hearts and fans, becoming almost an instant cult classic. The same will no doubt be true with this stellar, gorgeous soundtrack that isn't a Beatles tribute at all, but a re-imagining of the material for a story set in the turbulent era in which these songs were born. This "Delux Edition" is vastly superior to the previous single disc set, it includes an almost complete set of the film's songs (curiously the film's version of "I Want You" is missing). Purists are of course scoffing at the notion of a musical featuring Beatles music sung and performed by artists other than John, Paul, Ringo and George, but purists will of course never been satisfied. For the open-minded and open-eared, this is a very creative, entertaining take on the material. The actors have powerful voices and there is a fine selection of invited names such as U2's Bono and Joe Cocker. The main production here is done by composer Elliot Goldenthal (Frida, Interview With The Vampire) and T-Bone Burnette (Robert Plant and Alison Krauss's "Raising Sand"), they give us rich, exciting arrangements that give the songs new life. Just listen to the tender rendition of "I Want To Hold Your Hand," which here is turned into a rock ballad full of ache and tears. "With A Little Help From My Friends" and "Helter Skelter" are scorching rockers while Bono's take of "I Am The Walrus" is a great psychedelic freak-out. Songs like "It Won't Be Long" and "Hold Me Tight" have snapping arrangements that retain a nostalgic 1960s pop feel. "Blue Jay Way" touches on the classic mix of rock and Indian music that stamped a lot of Beatles music during the Summer Of Love. Some of the songs like "Girl," "Because" and "Across The Universe" are turned into beautiful, ghostly numbers while "Happiness Is A Warm Gun" is a menacing crawl. Bono and U2 guitarist The Edge close the show with a wonderfully spacey "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds." "Across The Universe" stands strong as an original, creative attempt at molding a story around these classic songs, which is more original than anything else we've seen from Hollywood recently. With lush orchestral arrangements and some great rock showmanship we have here an album that does justice to The Beatles, the music is elevated to new heights, and maybe a new generation of listeners will be tempted to discover the original masterpieces for themselves after experiencing Taymor's musical.Free Music Review: Excellent Beatles interpretations
Hit: 5 Stars
Interscope Records has released three variations of soundtrack albums from the film - a standard edition and two deluxe editions. The standard edition contains 16 tracks from the film soundtrack. The first version of the deluxe edition features 31 tracks - all of the vocal performances and one of the three instrumental tracks. This 31-track version is available solely at the Best Buy retail chain and in a digital version via iTunes. A second version of the deluxe edition is available at other retail outlets. The second version differs from the 31-track version in that it omits two tracks: "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" and "Why Don't We Do It In The Road?". The total time for these two missing tracks is 5 minutes.
If you can get the 31-track version without a lot of hassle, then do so. But see no point in buying the 16-song single CD version when for a few dollars more you get more than 54 minutes of extra music.
The 29-track version is excellent and worth the money. Virtually every song is done in a manner very different from the original by the Beatles and yet it is very enjoyable and tasteful. Great, innovative cover versions, an amazing feat.
A final comment. Interscope Records is to be disdained for releasing 2 different Deluxe versions and causing both buyers and sellers a lot of needless decision making problems. Obviously, Best Buys made some marketing arrangement with Interscope Records but created a lot of angst for buyers.