ALBUM REVIEW: The Beatles - Let It Be

    The back cover of this release calls Let It Be a "new phase" Beatles album, but there is nothing exactly "new phase" about this album, especially given the fact that most of its material is a year old.The pure black packaging tells us the truth - this is a posthumous Beatles album, released in the wake of the band's death. What released to the world in May of 1970 was not new recordings from the group, who were already essentially done after Abbey Road and John's departure in September, but the end product of work started in January of 1969. The original Get Back record was shelved in April '69 after what are now infamous sessions and a poor mix of the album from Glyn Johns - they thought the idea was a bust, so they moved on to Abbey Road. A year later, Phil Spector gets a hold of the tapes from John Lennon (who had already produced "Instant Karma!" for him), cleans them up with his brand of production, and preps it for a real release in 1970 as Let It Be. The resulting album proves to be one of the most controversial releases in the group's history, and many a debate is still had about the album's quality and production. Frankly, it's a very good album, but in comparison to the Get Back concept it's one that's very much "its own thing", and certainly a step down from the incredible expectations The Beatles themselves set in the years prior.

    Easily the biggest sticking point with this album is Phil Spector's production style, a decently controversial point even within the band itself. Spector was asked to come and fix the album by John and George, and admittedly he did an admirable job on most of the album as far as making it a more coherent project. His addition of sound snippets in the middle of various songs helps give the album that "loose" feel of the original Get Back mix, but not to the point where the songs themselves sound inferior - Spector uses competent sounding master takes of these numbers, and it shows in the overall performance quality. This also helps with the flow of the album, adding a slight tinge of comedy but more than anything providing a sensible segue for many of the songs between each other. It all sounds pretty good, although this leads us to the most controversial part of Spector's production - his "Wall of Sound". Compared to the more basic production of George Martin, Phil Spector's patent was a reverb-heavy mishmash of a ton of musicians to create a "big" sound, utilized on "Across the Universe", "I Me Mine", "Let It Be", and "The Long and Winding Road". All of these songs are, unfortunately, murdered by Spector's melodramatic overproduction, especially "The Long and Winding Road" (Paul himself was offended by the overdubs and would spearhead a remix of the album in later years because of them). While other songs like "Let It Be" still have this butchering, it's not quite as bad as the aforementioned track (plus, Spector's mix has a bitching guitar solo from Harrison, so I'm willing to forgive). It's a bit of a mixed bag production-wise, but even I have to admit it's better than Johns' original crack at it.

    But of course, there's also more to the album than just the production - this is your reminder that the material on Let It Be is certainly some of the greatest rock The Beatles ever put out. Compared to Get Back, a few songs are dropped and others are brought in, and this is where the album gets even more distance on Johns' original mix - we lose "Don't Let Me Down", yes, but "Teddy Boy" is also put out of its misery (whether this is because Paul had just had it on McCartney or because Phil Spector had enough sense to know that their take was shit remains to be seen). In its place, we have George's waltz into blues jam that is "I Me Mine" and a rendition of John's beautiful "Across the Universe", which had previously been released on a World Wildlife Fund album. "I Me Mine" is a fantastic jam number (even with the intrusive orchestra dub) and "Across the Universe" sits as one of my absolute favorite John numbers from his time in The Beatles - a simple but infectious melody and a beautifully down to Earth feel. All the things that were good about Get Back are still here, of course, but still just more competent - "One After 909" still rocks, "Dig a Pony" uses the more fleshed out and competent rooftop take, "I've Got a Feeling" has a more driving feel, and numbers like "For You Blue" and "Get Back" remain largely the same, but still don't disappoint.

    For all intensive purposes, I still consider Abbey Road the group's grand final stand. Let It Be is not necessarily a bad album, and I'd argue it isn't really as underwhelming as some others make it out to be. What I do think it is, however, is a less than ideal way for The Beatles' career to come to an end. What would follow in years to come is plenty of solo projects and archival releases that would further cement The Beatles into immortality, but for a while, this is where the story ends. Let It Be is still a very good album, and serves as a solid leftover from one of rock music's most significant and important acts.

RATING: ✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯✯

Listen to Let It Be.