Aside from their first couple of albums this skanky reviewer always found Let It Be to be the most disappointing of The Beatles’ output. I get what they were trying to do, but the recording always failed to elicit any kind of excitement in my craven heart. And so when I heard that this album was being re-released with all the gushing, gooey production by the incarcerated Phil Spector stripped away, I rushed right out to put it on my Christmas list in the hopes that someone would spend their money to give it to me. No one did. So once again I shelled out my own bucks on a tax-deductible purchase so that you, the fair and gentle whatzup reader, can gain the benefit of my acquisition.

After a few listens the verdict is finally in: It sounds almost exactly like the original release. They axed the two roughest songs (“Maggie Mae” and “Dig It”) and the dialogue that sprinkled the 1970 release while adding in the gutsy “Don’t Let Me Down.” These and the other tracks were digitally cleaned and probed and cured in a 500-degree oven to make them sonically spotless and shiny, an odd concept to apply to a record that was intended to be live and raw. The engineers restrained themselves from applying all the modern sonic-squashing gizmos so, although everything sounds as clean as Paul’s grandpa, it mercifully doesn’t sound “modern.”

So how ‘bout them tracks, eh? “Dig A Pony” has George’s lead a bit hotter, which is nice, and “I Me Mine” benefits from the scouring that leaves it raw and bloody with extra organ acting as a balm. “Across the Universe” has a bit more reverb on the vocals, and you can now hear the tamboura which was previously hidden. The album ends with “Let It Be” (oh yeah, they changed the order of the songs, a decision I think makes the album flow much better), and the scaled-back song gives you a clearer view of the guitar solo and the vocals, replacing the glaucoma-besmirched corneas with a lighter chorus and simple organ.

Of the track that received the biggest sonic smudge, “The Long and Winding Road,” I can honestly say that I much prefer this version to the Spector-vision. Gone is the huge string section, leaving the song intimate with crisp drums, clean piano and untainted guitar. While the previous version was a pompous, eye-watering Hallmark card, this version revels in humility.

A superfluous second CD is included, with 21 minutes of studio chatter and rehearsal snippets, unnecessary because this length could have easily been tacked onto the end of the 35-minute album. Yes, I sound like a grinch, and I like it.

In the end (I’m sooo clever!) this CD is a nice addition but doesn’t do much to shed new light on the songs of The Beatles other than to continue the process of releasing digitally cleaned albums started by the soundtrack for The Yellow Submarine.

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