Let It Be [Digipak]

Performer: Original Soundtrack/The Beatles
Artist: Billy Preston
Engineer: Glyn Johns; Geoff Emerick
Producer: Phil Spector
Distributor: EMI Music Distribution

Notes: LET IT BE...NAKED contains a FLY ON THE WALL bonus disc including song rehearsals and conversation snatches. The Beatles: John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, Ringo Starr. Additional personnel: Billy Preston (keyboards). Includes liner notes by Kevin Howlett and interview excerpts with The Beatles from the original LET IT BE book. This reissue of LET IT BE has been digitally re-mastered. It comes packaged with replicated original U.K. album art, an expanded booklet containing original and newly written liner notes, and rare photos. Limited quantities of the CD are embedded with a brief documentary film about the album. This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files. Original Soundtrack/The Beatles: Paul McCartney (vocals, guitar, piano, bass instrument); John Lennon, George Harrison (vocals, guitar); Ringo Starr (drums). Additional personnel: Billy Preston (keyboards). Audio Mixer: Peter Bown. Audio Remasterers: Sam Okell; Steve Rooke; Guy Massey. Photographer: Ethan Russell. The only Beatles album to occasion negative, even hostile reviews, there are few other rock records as controversial as Let It Be. First off, several facts need to be explained: although released in May 1970, this was not their final album, but largely recorded in early 1969, way before Abbey Road. Phil Spector was enlisted in early 1970 to do some post-production mixing and overdubs, but he did not work with the band as a unit. And, although his use of strings has generated much criticism, by and large he left the original performances to stand as is: only "The Long and Winding Road" and (to a lesser degree) "Across the Universe" and "I Me Mine" get the Wall of Sound treatment. The main problem was that the material wasn't uniformly strong, and that the Beatles themselves were in fairly lousy moods due to intergroup tension. All that said, the album is on the whole underrated, even discounting the fact that a substandard Beatles record is better than almost any other group's best work. McCartney in particular offers several gems: the gospel-ish "Let It Be," which has some of his best lyrics; "Get Back," one of his hardest rockers; and the melodic "The Long and Winding Road," ruined by Spector's heavy-handed overdubs. The folky "Two of Us," with John and Paul harmonizing together, was also a highlight. Most of the rest of the material, by contrast, was going through the motions to some degree, although there are some good moments of straight hard rock in "I've Got a Feeling" and "Dig a Pony." As flawed and bumpy as it is, it's an album well worth having, as when the Beatles were in top form here, they were as good as ever. [In November 2003, the Beatles released an alternate version of Let It Be called Let It Be... Naked, which mixed out Spector's contributions and deleted snippets of conversation scattered throughout the album. "Dig It" and "Maggie Mae" were cut from the record in favor of "Don't Let Me Down," which was placed in the middle of an album that now had a considerably different sequencing than the originally released version of Let It Be.] ~ Richie Unterberger In its original form, LET IT BE signaled the end of an era, closing the book on the Beatles, as well as literally and figuratively marking the end of the '60s. The 1970 release evolved from friction-filled sessions the Beatles intended to be an organic, bare-bones return to their roots. Instead, the endless hours of tapes were eventually handed over to Phil Spector, since neither the quickly splintering Beatles nor their longtime producer George Martin wanted to sift through the voluminous results. LET IT BE... NAKED sets the record straight, revisiting the contentious sessions, stripping away the Spectorian orchestrations, reworking the running order, and losing all extemporaneous in-studio banter. On this version of the album, filler tracks ("Dig It," "Maggie Mae") are dropped, while juicy b-side "Don't Let Me Down" is added. The most obvious revamping is on the songs handled heavily by Spector. Removing the orchestrations from "The Long and Winding Road" and "Across the Universe" gives Paul McCartney's vocals considerably more resonance on the former, doing the same for John Lennon's voice and guitar on the latter. This alternate take on LET IT BE enhances the album's power, reclaiming the raw, unadorned quality that was meant to be its calling card from the beginning. Generally regarded as the Beatles' last album, LET IT BE was actually recorded in 1969, before the recording and release of ABBEY ROAD. LET IT BE was greeted with mixed reviews when it came out in 1970, and is still a controversial disc in the band's catalogue--many fans reject it, while others defend it fiercely. Notable for its difference from anything else the Beatles recorded, LET IT BE has a raw, ragged, muscular sound that recalls the band's very earliest rock roots. The songs were mostly recorded live (save Phil Spector's overdubs on "The Long and Winding Road," "Across the Universe," and "I Me Mine"), and the result is a world away from the meticulous, high-sheen sophistication of the group's George Martin-produced releases. No one is likely to argue that LET IT BE is the band's best album, but it is a strong release nonetheless. From the easy-rolling folk feel of "Two of Us" to the interlocking vocals and screaming guitar of "I've Got a Feeling" to the epoch-making title cut (one of Paul McCartney's finest moments), the album bristles with good songwriting and gutsy energy. There are moments of filler--the rock & roll rehash "One After 909," for example--but at its best, as on John Lennon's meditative "Across the Universe" and the driving "Get Back" (which features Billy Preston on keys and is the record's high point), it shows the Beatles for what they always were: a top-notch, hard-working rock band.

Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.116) - Ranked #86 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "...Some of the strongest rockers and most poignant ballads in their entire canon..." Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.207) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...It's nice to have the sparer rendition of 'Across the Universe' that Lennon recorded, and the sonic improvements to the album as a whole are undeniable..." Entertainment Weekly (10/12/01, p.36) - Ranked #45 in EW's "100 Best Movie Soundtracks" - "...Beautifully explores a nostalgia for simpler times - theirs 'and' ours..." Entertainment Weekly (11/21/03, pp.81-2) - "...Some of these changes are for the better. The sonic clarity is welcome and the revamped album concludes, as the original should have, with the title track, one of the most moving songs McCartney ever wrote..." - Rating: B+ Mojo (Publisher) (12/03, p.134) - 5 stars out of 5 - "[T]he cleaning up, editing and re-sequencing has brought out a warmth and depth of colour we've not heard before..."

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