An issue frowned upon by orthodox fans and one I got to accept late in life. The background story isn't very promising. A renowned producer - Alan Douglas - digging in leftover recordings five years after Hendrix' death - adding backups and arrangements by studio musicians, in one case combining parts of three totally different songs to a new one. In a way similar to Phil Spectors' work with the Get Back tapes during Beatles break up. Although conditions differed, the main task was about the same. Going through hundreds of hours with more or less unfinished cuts - combining, adding and rearranging - trying to get an acceptable result. Even if "Let It Be" didn't become one of the band's better efforts it still has some of the Beatle magic and couple of very good songs. The ground material here was probably less comprehensive, but I do get a portion of the Hendrix magic - awesome guitars and those special vocals. If you forget the greedy circumstances and the blame for a while and just listen it's actually a pretty good album - well produced with fine audio throughout and most of the songs high class. Not up there with "Axis" or "Ladyland", but comparable to accepted posthumous issues as "Cry Of Love" or "Rainbow Bridge". So if you choose to see this as just another flogging it's a bad record, but if you don't mind the context there's a lot to enjoy on it. Favorite tracks - "Message To Love" and "Come Down Hard On Me". Premiere US on Reprise (MS 2204). First UK had label as shown here and matt cover. (JHÄ*)
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