Let It Be... Naked - The Beatles

Ah, The Beatles. When they were good they were excellent. The early pop stuff is still very entertaining. Help!, Rubber Soul and Revolver are three of my favourite albums. Sgt Pepper, Magical Mystery Tour and even the White Album have some great, great songs on them. Abbey Road is also pretty fab. But Let It Be... I dunno. It's always seemed like the runt of the litter, the album that they could easily have not made without it affecting their reputation. When defending the album, fans will usually point to the fact that a) it was made when the band hated each other, and b) it was produced by Phil Spector, not George Martin. This version, released in 2003, has ...  Read the complete review

After reviewing the original release of Let It Be, i thought that it would be an ideal time to review the version that is said to be closer to what the original the Beatles had in mind. With this in mind, and my love of the original release, let's dive in. 1. Get Back - A more laid back version with a greater use of keyboard and more sparse instrumentation, but a good track that for me is too similar to the orginal to consider it to be wildly different. 2. Dig A Pony - This is a bit more rock than the last version, but the Lennon vocals on this are great and probably trump the original released version in my opinion. 3. For You Blue - I ...  Read the complete review

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 equivelant of a 'dirctors 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 offical Let It be. yes, there is clarity unheard before, but the polish and gleam take away what fun there was. Don't get ...  Read the complete review

'Let It Be' was originally released in 1960 after the band had broke up, & was produced after the fact by Phil Spector, under John Lennon's duress. This re-worked version of the original 1970 album is Paul McCartney's vision of how he it might have sounded had it not been produced by an 'outsider'. Originally conceived as a back to basics return to their roots, the sessions fell apart & were left unfinished. Revived by Spector the following year, it was probably the only Beatles album to have criticism levelled at it, for it's messy, unpolished feel. Here some of the tracks actually succeed in bettering the originals - there is a stunning ...  Read the complete review