I'm amazed. The Beatles never sounded this good.

"Let It Be... Naked" is a rerelease of the original album of the same name, but now stripped of Phil Spector's production. It's a transparent work that focuses on the band, the sound of people in an actual room making music. I really like Spector's work, including his versions of these songs, but this album sounds more honest. Here and there you hear different performances, or notice details hidden by the mixes which were supervised by Spector. And the overall result is amazing... the songs sound very current, right at home with most of the hip rock bands out there.

"Let It Be" (the song) is basically the original minus the orchestration, and it sounds really clean. "The Long and Winding Road" is mixed differently, features different performances and a different arrangement of the lyrics. In fact, everything on the album has been re-mixed. I'll be listening to this one for some time.

The album's site is awesome as well. You can turn the pages...