The Beatles: Let It Be... Naked

Those who think that Paul McCartney's recent tampering with The Beatles' catalog has nothing to do with the fact that only Ringo is left to say no are kidding themselves. Left to reshape the band in his own image, McCartney used a recent live album to put his name in front of John Lennon's on their shared composing credits, and he's also commissioned a new mix of Let It Be. Recorded before, but released after, The Beatles' Abbey Road swan song, Let It Be began life as a back-to-basics project that had the group recording in close quarters under the unrelenting gaze of a documentary film crew. The process further fractured the already-fragile Beatles and yielded rough results, which were sweetened before the record's release by producer Phil Spector. That decision left McCartney livid, but even if John Lennon and George Harrison had trouble with it, that didn't stop them from calling on Spector as a solo-album producer. (Or, in Lennon's case, as a partner in misadventures.) All of which has led, 33 years later, to the release of Let It Be… Naked, a stripped-down, remixed version of Let It Be. Questionable, George Lucas-like artistic revisionism aside–though at least McCartney has the good sense to leave the original version in print–Let It Be… Naked does have its strong points. The title track and "The Long And Winding Road" particularly benefit from the new/old settings, and in general, Naked partially restores the loose spirit that the project was meant to capture. Great moments and all, however, Naked feels less like a standalone project than an official bootleg, particularly given the for-nerds-only bonus disc of studio chatter and false starts. Let It Be includes some of The Beatles' best songs, but in any form, it will never sound like the band's best album. After two attempts, it's probably best to let Let It Be be.