Let It Be - Beatles (The)

Advantages: Let It Be, Get Back
Disadvantages: The sound of a good band dying

...centre stage and content to let Macca hold the reins. Harrison was starting to urge for a bigger part and Ringo was just Ringo. Macca tried very hard to keep things together but was soon off tending sheep with Linda and making some pretty naff albums in his early solo days. It's all very, very sad... Track listing Two Of Us Dig A Pony Across The Universe I Me Mine Dig It Let It Be Maggie Mae I've Got A Feeling One After 909 The Long and Winding ...
...Billy Preston was featured on keyboards on this album, Phil Spector was brought in on production duties. As said, this was supposed to be the project that relaunched them as a band, and it captures them rehearsing and trying out new songs and the live show was meant to be the climax, but unfortunately the startling film captures them disintegrating. The website - http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~ms538596/lib.html – is a mine of useful info including ... Read review

Advantages: some utterly amazing tracks
Disadvantages: a couple of poor ones

Let it be is generally considered to be among the Beatles worst albums. Although I would probably agree with this statement, I would also say that it is still an excellent record. It is often seen as the last Beatles album. In fact Abbey Road was recorded after Let it be and I see it to be the last final full Beatles LP. During the recordign of this album, the fab four turned a bit sour towards each other and the beatles myth was tarnished in the ...
...exposed what they were really like. The sessions ended in stalemate, with the four pretty much abandoning the production process, so Phil Spector was brought in to make sense of reams of tape, givign it the ‘phil spector touch’ of averageness. Well, I’m exagerrating, but his influence was large how many tracks turned out and I believe he spoiled some songs with his addition of female voclas and orchestrations as back up, which was ... Read review

Advantages: Great music, good concept, some live tracks
Disadvantages: The absence of George Martin, Phil Spector at the control board

Let It Be, released on May 8, 1970, is somewhat of a Beatles anomaly. The project had an original working title of Get Back, and was planned as a sort of film and record documentary of their work in the studio, and musically they hoped to capture the essence of their early musical influences. During the period of time that the group was recording for this album, the legal and personality problems between the members were beginning to surface, so ...
...John, in a falsetto, introducing Let It Be, by Paul, as "Hark The Angels Come", with a little barely concealed derision. 6. Let It Be--I call this one Paul's "southern gospel" song, and it does have that sort of feel to it. Some critics have said that it's about his mother; I don't know about that. I tend to think of it a simply a song about the comforts that religion can offer us. Paul's voice and his piano are beatiful in their simplicity. Billy ... Read review

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...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 work, but did not work with the band as a unit, as George Martin and Glyn Johns had on the sessions themselves; Spector's work was limited to mixing and some overdubs. And, ...
...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 layers of strings and female choruses. Although most of the album, then, has a live-in-the-studio feel, the main problem was that the material wasn't uniformly strong, and that the Beatles themselves were in fairly lousy moods due to inter-group tension. All that said, the ... Read review

Advantages: The Long And Winding Road Is probably Better
Disadvantages: Much of the character has been removed

...If we were to be brutally honest... let It Be was never a classic Beatles album. Divisions were already apparent and baring a few very good songs it lacked the imagination and invention of previous albums. At the time of release there were many well document disputes about the final product not being as intended. When Naked emerged all thought we may finally see a musical equivalent of a 'directors cut'. Alas, this was not to be. What we have is a less raw and cleaner version of the album. I found this version to be almost characterless compared to the official Let It Be. Yes, there is clarity unheard before, but the polish and gleam take away what fun there was. Don't get me wrong, a below par Beatles album is still a masterpiece but other standards and many songs are still great. I just didn't feel this added anything. The only real... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful

Advantages: Great more Beatles stuff,
Disadvantages: none

...This is the 3rd of the 4th Cds I bought at Woolies on Friday, Great that is part of hubbys pressie for Christmas but when I got home I went out and he went snooping only to come home to find him saying this is brilliant, thanks. Now I like the Beatles but am not a fan and I would not honestly know the difference between this and the other so I have had to ask the old hubby since he has played it about 40 times since yesterday. The cover -------------- The original album was in the positive form of all the pictures of the Beatles. The front of the cover is silver and has negatives in black and white of all The Beatles. Let it Be ... is in Black at the top and Naked is in Red. Under the pictures in black is The Beatles. The back of the cover is an index and tells you about the extra 21 min disc called Fly on the wall which... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: A rehash of an already classic album
Disadvantages: Might ostracise some Beatle-purists

...' Some of the tracks in this album are taken from different takes than those that appeared on the original Spector produced LP ? mainly ?The Long And Winding Road?, which in the 'Naked' version that appeared here- it gives us the overall essence of this reissue of THE BEATLES? Let It Be album, that really sounded quite raw (and even at times really dried up compared to the original that appeared on its Spector (ie. ?Un-Naked?) produced issue), which have the certain appearance of a demo cut in the way it felt, and the way I see it ? being that it became totally stripped of its deep emotional elements - in the result it nearly levelled to go somewhat in similarity sounding like ?Ebony And Ivory? from one of McCartney?s solo LP?s after the break up of the band he came up with called WINGS. ?Across The Universe? comes as yet another real fine... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful