Thirty years since the original ‘Let it Be’ album, we now have an all new ‘Let it Be’ released as the Beatles first intended it…..Naked. The sound of the Beatles as nature intended, raw and rocking. The album regarded by the Beatles as least important, is today probably a much sought after recording. Legend has it that when the Beatles nearly broke up in 1970, the band’s manager handed recordings of the album to producer Phil Spector, who got the album on the racks. But the members weren’t too happy except for Lennon. Spector’s orchestral additions made the album more heavy, resulting in a different sound altogether. The ‘naked’ version eliminates Spector’s sound, resulting into a pure unadulterated sound of the Beatles in their prime, sounding just the way they recorded these songs.

However a true Beatle fan would surely make out the difference, to even to the minutest detail in the inlay. Upon the first and may be second listen you would notice that there’s a less guitar work on the opening Get Back, The long and winding road, that has less string section compared to the Spector version. The track listing too differs from the 1970 release, with even the little back ground dialogue missing, and while Dig it and Maggie Mae have been taken off the album, Don’t let me down has been added to the running order. So what we have are all sharp, but raw tracks.

And what’s more, adding to the approximately 35 minute album on the A-side, we have Side B or Disc 2, issued together with the album, a bonus fly-on the wall disc that features extracts from tapes of The Beatles at the time of the first making of the ‘Let it Be’ album and movie in the sixties. The 20 - minute bonus disc is a unique insight of The Beatles at work in rehearsal and in the studios in January 1969.

‘Let it Be….Naked’ also comes with an attractive inlay that features historic photography of the recording sessions and extracts of band dialogue from the original booklet that first accompanied early copies of the 1970 album. The memory of its creation are the tensions that came about within its unhappy business dealings and its imminent threat to tear the group apart. But these new mixes rekindle the group Ringo Starr, George Harrison, John Lennon and Paul McCartney as a tight and co-operative unit. The tracklisting also includes Get Back, Dig A Pony, For you Blue, The long and Winding Road, Two of Us, I’ve got a friend, One after 909, Don’t let me down, I’ve mine, Across the Universe, Let it be.

A comparison will surely be made by any Beatle fan on this and the 70s version, and while the 70s will have history on its side, it cannot be labeled as a replacement, but rather a companion, for they’re two different albums respectively. ‘Let it be…Naked’ is just the bare truth done with today’s technology, making them sound even better. It only goes to prove that the Beatles will be timeless and ageless. Period.

Vocals: ***
Lyrics: ***
Music: ***1/2
Recording ***

Overall rating: ****

Reiewed by Verus Ferreira