Sunday, March 21, 2004 :::
 
An old friend asked A Mind That Suits his impression of the latest Beatles album. They are, in case you hadn't heard, the dominant group among the younger set once again, proving that quality really can win, if it's matched with four witty, irresistable personalities. (George was probably the wittiest; John of course made you love him or obsess on hating him.) One, the greatest hits package with which they entered the millenium, has now sold 27 million copies, even in the age of piracy, making it one of the biggest sellers of all time and raising the bar immpossibly higher for anyone foolish enough to try and catch them. And then along came Let It Be (Naked), the realization of a long time dream of Paul McCartney's. The original album was in such bad shape that they all walked away from it, and the other three hired Phil Spector to patch it together, which is what it sounds like. Paul wanted Spector's handywork erased, and he finally got it. Herewith, my review, which is shorter than the set-up for it:

"Let It Be Naked (dumb title, Ringo's idea) is great, but it shows what Phil Spector was hiding, which was that you can hear that they hate each other. Only George is on top of his game instrumentally, despite some great songs. Any song Spector touched is dramatically improved by removing him. A weak, incoherent album became a very strong, coherent but not quite unified album. Still, you can hear why they had to take a break and come back and do Abbey Road before they could quit with class. And then sue each others' a**es for 20 years."

::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 9:21 PM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.