ALBUM REVIEW: Across the Universe Soundtrack (Deluxe Edition)

Across the Universe Soundtrack (Deluxe Edition)
Various Artists
Interscope, 2007

The world is waiting with bated breath to learn what this year's Beatles Christmas cash-in will be. After the three, well-spaced Anthologies, Beatles One, Let It Be (Naked) and last year's Love mash-up, it seemed that the Beatles mine had yielded the last of its seemingly inexhaustible lode. Not so! As the soundtrack of a movie based on a musical based on Beatles music, Across the Universe is hopefully the final chapter in a long book of ever-diminishing Beatles returns.

Across the Universe is the soundtrack of Julie Taymor's recently released film. The music is entirely reworked Beatles songs: tempos often slowed down, and massive liberties taken with the music and even the lyrics. For instance, all youthful exuberance has been stripped from I Want to Hold Your Hand, to the point that it sounds like an Enya outtake. It Won't be Long sounds like the Bangles, and making a guitar deliberately out of tune as on With a Little Help From My Friends , makes the song annoying and difficult to listen to.

There are a few good tracks here: the Lonnie Donegan skiffle of I've Just Seen a Face to a slimmed down, more palatable Revolution. However, the worth of Across the Universe can be summed up with Eddie Izzard's Being For the Benefit of Mr. Kite. Not only is John Lennon's psychedelic circus replaced with a Danny Elfman-esque phantasmagoria, Izzard's ad-libs must surely rank as the most irritating ever recorded: "I'm bloody brilliant! I've got horses and dogs and cats and monkeys and blue people." And this underscored with bicycle horns and woozy clarinets? Get a grip, people. Please.

As well, fare such as the cast recording of Because is barely distinguishable from the original. Sure, it sounds dandy, but really, what's the point? The exact opposite is true with Texan indie darlings The Secret Machines' take on instrumental track Flying, which sounds so unlike the original as to be another song entirely. The songs are often over-emoted, including Bono's rather conceited narration of I Am The Walrus, which comes across like an updated version of William Shatner's infamously campy Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds.

In the end, Across the Universe is doing the world a disservice by making the magic of the Beatles less obvious to a generation of kids who might hear some of these Ethel Merman-isms and wonder what all the hoopla is about. Truly, the best thing for the world right now would be the immediate cessation of all new Beatles product. They've been broken up for 37 years now. Let a younger generation themselves discover (as they inevitably will) Beatles records without having historical revisions shoved down their throats.

Finally, didn't anybody involved with Across the Universe ever see 1978's Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (the Movie), starring the Bee Gees and Peter Frampton? If they haven't, they ought to.

Review by Greg Hood-Morris

Agree? Disagree? Email Greg at criticizegreg@gmail.com

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