Let It Be [Enhanced, Limited Edition, Original recording remastered, Soundtrack]

The album itself has a kind of jagged, raw quality. It is often quite clear that the band is playing live and laying off of the overdubs: little polish is present. In contrast to the very refined and polished Sgt. Pepper, which the band took over a year and hundreds of hours to make, Let It Be was clearly approached with a looser frame of mind; at some points, they are clearly just letting loose and jamming. All of this, combined with the abundance of spoken dialogue from the band members (mostly Lennon), both between and during songs, would lead the uninitiated to believe that the band had a lot of fun recording this album. As anyone familiar with the story behind it knows, however, it was exactly the opposite. Some of the band members subsequently described the sessions as "absolute madness", hellish atmosphere of constant arguing among the members about everything from arrangements to their girlfriends. McCartney was clearly the leader of the sessions -- accused by Harrison, who actually left the band briefly, of domination. All of this makes it hard to view and judge the album objectively, but it is worthwhile to do so in order to get the record straight, so to speak and pardon the pun, thereby removing the album from its historical context and judging it on its own merits.

Several of the songs, as few would argue, are uniformly excellent. These include Across The Universe, a great track that features Lennon combining elements of his distinctive Dylan-esque lyricism, psychedelia, and pop. Two Of Us is a nice folksy number that features Lennon and McCartney singing together in a very charming manner. Harrison's I Me Mine is a nice, hard-rocking ditty. But the heart of the album lies with the three very strong McCartney tracks (Get Back, the title track, and The Long and Winding Road), the latter two of which rank among the best songs the band ever recorded. Get Back is a pleasant and very catchy country-esque rocker. Let It Be is am amazing quasi-gospel track that features some of McCartney's best lyrics. The Long and Winding Road is an incredibly beautiful and emotional track, one of the most pathos-inducing in the entire rock world. Contrary to the opinion of McCartney and many Beatles fans, Phil Spector's strings add a touch of grandeur and ethereal beauty to the track that would not otherwise be there. The song is the great track that it is partly because of the strings; it certainly would not be the same without it.

Of course, the album is also uneven -- featuring, as it does, several weak and/or mediocre tracks. All of the songs not thus far mentioned are either lightweight or pure filler -- though a couple of them are somewhat fun and enjoyable, their informal, jamming nature exuding a mood that is sometimes infectious. The frequently-appearing dialogue is also unnecessary and intrusive (unless one just happens to love Lennon's uber-British sense of humor); removing it is one thing that Let It Be... Naked got right. However, these weaknesses should not stigmatize the album as strongly as many critics have been wont to do; after all, every single Beatles studio album -- and especially the White Album, as good as it is -- has fat on it that should have been trimmed off. This might have a little more than some of the others, but it is still a viable, enjoyable album that contains some absolutely classic and essential Beatles songs. For fans, it is a must, though they should not start here.