Let It Be Naked

George Martin has famously said on many occasions that there is "nothing left in the vault". There is no unreleased Beatles material left. Oh, except for the tons of stuff that showed up on the 6 discs of the Anthology series. And the thousands of bootlegs of recording sessions. While it may be true that there are no new songs, there are still tons of versions of songs that haven't seen the light of day. Some fans like hearing the jam sessions and rehearsals, others like hearing 13 different versions of Strawberry Fields in a row, others just like hearing the raw mixes. Naked caters to the latter of those.

If you've got "Get Back Sessions" or the Ultra-Rare Trax line of bootlegs, this is an iffy purchase. It's got better sound quality, but you've already heard all of this. Then again, if you have bootlegs you're probably a collector anyway and will buy this because you're OCD and HAVE to have EVERYTHING. Including buying both the US and UK editions because the songs are in different orders and the cover has a different photo. Not that I would know about that...

Stripped of Phil Spectors controversial production, the songs are simple and straightforward. Whether or not this is good depends on your taste. Most people are familiar with the album as originally released and will likely prefer that version. I think some of the tracks on Naked really benefit from the space they are given, but Spectors cram-as-much-sound-in-as-possible approach works better for others. A good producer would know the difference and give space to the songs that need it and fill up the others with over the top orchestration. Both Spector and McCartney fail in this respect, one by not giving any space, the other by giving everything space.

What I find more interesting than the argument over which version is better is rediscovering the music itself. And in that Naked does a far better job than the original.