John, Paul, George and Ringo: These four men redefined the genre of rock 'n roll over 50 years ago.
Even today, there remains a lasting obsession with The Beatles' personality, history and music. Julie Taymor's new Beatles-inspired movie, "Across the Universe," and its soundtrack are just another chapter in a compendium of Beatles-inspired works.
The most recent of these projects include "LOVE," the new Vegas Cirque du Soleil show based solely on Beatles' songs, "Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur," a CD compilation of John Lennon covers, as well as numerous Beatles tribute groups and impersonators that exist and tour today.
The "Across the Universe" soundtrack covers Beatles' songs, some more well-known than others, ranging from "Come Together" and "Hey Jude" to "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and "I've Just Seen a Face." Because the movie is a musical, most of the songs are sung by the main actors - mostly Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess - with the exception of a few cameo appearances by Joe Cocker on "Come Together" and Bono on "I Am the Walrus" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."
The actors who sing do a better than average job, considering neither one is known for their vocal talents. The album boasts a significant lack of rookie mistakes characteristic of many other current day musicals.
The standouts, though, most certainly come during the appearances of Cocker and Bono. Cocker's "Come Together" captures the mysterious sound of the original Beatles' single, while adding a more soulful voice and an almost African rhythm.
Meanwhile, Bono covers two of the group's experiments with psychedelic rock, "I Am the Walrus" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and his voice fits perfectly in the acid-trip world both songs create.
Carol Woods also covers arguably the most famous Beatles song, "Let it Be," with grace and emotion, but even her moving rendition can't really match up to the original.
The two highlights of the soundtrack are Joe Anderson's saddening rendition of "Hey Jude" and Evan Rachel Wood's peaceful version of "Blackbird." Both songs communicate the film's love story plot through the voices of the performers as well as the modern instruments added to the original songs.
Other tracks include the title cut, "Across the Universe," which features another great performance by newcomer Sturgess, "I Want to Hold Your Hand," by T.V. Carpio (a supporting character in the movie), and two songs, "Oh! Darling" and "Helter Skelter," by little-known performer Dana Fuchs - who is clearly Janis Joplin incarnate. Not only is each track separately phenomenal, but together they form a compilation of Beatles covers certain to satisfy even the most hardcore Beatles' fans.
The only disappointing, yet economically ingenious, thing about the album is that there are supposedly 33 Beatles' songs in the movie, yet there are only 16 tracks on the record. In order to discover the other 17 songs in the film, you would either have to take a trip to the local movie theater to see it for yourself or download them illegally (which Tufts students never, ever, ever do).
"Across the Universe" is the first movie since 1970's "Let it Be" to consist wholly of Beatles' music, and judging by the soundtrack, the music loses nothing of its original purity.
Although, according to multiple scathing reviews - one even having appeared in this very paper - the soundtrack is better listened to alone without the accompaniment of Julie Taymor's construction.
