Let It Be

The sound quality is excellent. I have a lot of remastered cds but The Beatles seem to have the best sound of all! You feel like you are in the room with them. I love the bonus cd with very good alternative versions of the songs. Highly recommended!

Very good remastered cd with lots of interesting outtakes on CD 2. Very good value as well.

Wonderful album, and background music. Perfect when paired with the recent documentary film release

This is the third time now that I've purchased the Beatles' swan song album 'Let It Be'. I'm actually still in possession of a vinyl copy acquired in 1973, needless to mention a c.d. "upgrade" I was coerced into buying during the '90's which you'd think would be enough. But such is the nature of the business that they should tempt us with outtakes and rarities, whereby the lure becomes too much for Beatle heads like myself to ignore. Thankfully the tracks here on disc two of this double set aren't merely rehashes from 'Anthology 3' and if your appetite has been whetted by the recent Peter Jackson 'Get Back' documentary film then this is definitely worth having. In common with the official album, there are a few blink and you'll miss 'em snippets here ( 'Wake Up Little Susie', 'Fancy My Chances With You' etc ), but also a frustratingly short run through old R n' B classic 'The Walk'. Early attempts at 'I've Got A Feeling' and 'Dig A Pony' are interesting enough - although a bit wobbly - as is a skeletal version of 'I Me Mine', clearly in it's infancy. The studio banter which intersperses faves like 'Get Back' and 'For You Blue' is worth it's weight in gold to those of us who will always cherish the Beatles, as are glorious moments like John forgetting the words on one of the rooftop takes of 'Don't Let Me Down' as Ringo guffawed from behind him. The welcome presence of Billy Preston is much in evidence on many of the tracks, and while Ringo continues to silence his detractors on these recordings, it must be noted that George's penchant for channeling his guitar through a Leslie speaker can at times be excessive. Former "Apple Scruff" Lizzie Bravo will be delighted that the cut of 'Across The Universe' is - it seems - the one with her voice on it, but ultimately it's the material on disc one which I will always return to. Not only is the rooftop stuff far superior - particularly 'One After 909', but what else comes anywhere near George's upfront guitar on the album version of 'Let It Be'? You can huff and puff all you like about Phil Spector's much maligned production - pointlessly tweaked here by Giles Martin - but at the end of the day it's the one - regardless of what Paul says - that most of us know and love.

The final album by the band that would define the rock music of the nineteen sixties, Let It Be hints at the live band that might have emerged if the four members could only have found some way to continue. Gone are the lush, carefully assembled vocal harmonies and detailed overdubs recorded in one of the best studios in the world (Abbey Road). Instead we get the “raw” sound of the band recorded in a London basement, with largely inappropriate overdubs on four of the tracks, which were recorded much later by a different producer (Phil Spector) in the aforementioned Abbey Road Studio. Recording of the basic tracks was completed in January 1969, just before the band began recording Abbey Road, which actually saw release before Let It Be. If the band themselves ended up disappointed with the sonic quality and impact of Let It Be, then it’s no surprise that many fans find the album problematic. It marks the beginning of an uncomfortable end for a band that had been so uniquely influential, but the fact that we’re all here fifty odd years later listening to it must say something about the continuing interest in the band, if not the final product. This version is newly remixed by George Martin’s son Giles, and unlike the earlier iterations it manages to avoid all the pitfalls, presenting the material in a sympathetic but never sycophantic way. The flaws in the recording process are on display, albeit rendered more acceptable by some sympathetic (and largely invisible) audio processing. This new version is infinitely superior to the disastrous McCartney sponsored Let It Be... Naked, which really did the music no favours. Martin manages to transcend the original commercial mix too, subduing the sickly and rather obviously OTT string and choir arrangements. It is a compromise, of course, but probably the best that could be done. Some casual listeners may be confused by the inter-song chatter, and the inexplicable inclusion of suspect nuggets Maggie Mae and Dig It. This new version comes with a second CD that does nothing to explain these diversions, but the answer may be found in the new documentary film assembled by Peter Jackson, where the “warts and all” ethos does have some meaning. Ultimately, Let It Be has become an album about a band who are maybe making an album or maybe just rehearsing for something (one conversation track on the second CD addresses this very confusion), and as well as getting to hear the final result, you also get to bear witness to the process. If that interests you then the album (especially in its new format) is a fascinating insight into the triumphs and failures of one of the greatest bands to ever exist. That the songs never reach their true potential in this format is the real tragedy here. The ironic triumph is that they nevertheless survive largely undiminished.

The Beatles ‘last’ hurrah. An eclectic collection of songs from the Fab Four as they were bowing out, but undeniably and unmistakably full of their musical DNA. A 2-disc remastered version - it’s The Beatles, it’s fab!

The Beatles at their finest.

I'm 74 and grew up as a teenager during the 60's and into all the music of those years. But especially the Beatles and I bought every single, EP and LP on the day they were issued. I have Sargent Pepper several times. In 1987 the Lp was reissued as limited number for a short period. They were using the first line "It was 20 years ago today " as a reason to reissue it on the 20th Anniversary. But the picture on the cover with so many faces was actually printed on the record instead with a circular hole in the cover just like singles always were. When CDs were invented it was reissued on CD which I bought but after only reissuing a few of the Beatles albums on CD, it was decided to issue all of them in the Black Box. So now I had 4 copies of Sargent Pepper. It's a great idea reissuing the albums now with an extra disc with so many little extras. This was excellent but I'll say that Abbey Road was the best so far because the 2nd album had all the songs in the same order on the 2nd disc with alternative versions which were most interesting. They say that the main discs are remastered from the original and sounds better but I'll admit that I don't have that level of perfection in my hearing so I can't see any difference. It's still good though for the extras.