Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 12/20/1991
Run Time: 35:13
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, All Music Guide
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