Review Summary: The manliest album ever recorded
Let’s all be honest here; how many of you all thought this would be a direct Beatles cover album? While the album cover is obviously a duplicate of the original
Let it Be, the music on this one sounds nothing like The Beatles. Instead of the common catchy drums and rhythms as seen on The Beatles, Laibach experiments with fierce militaristic rhythms and passionate choirs into one huge array of sound, making this entirely different from the original Beatles
Let it Be. The vocals are your typical Laibach, however; incredibly rough guttural singing, matched with a stylistically amusing approach. But really, it can take a very long time to get used to the vocals, but when you do, you will love raising your fist with confidence and singing along to the beautiful album that is
Let it Be.
Essentially, this band is using what is called a counter-melody for this album. While I don’t exactly know as a concrete whole what this means, I’m almost certain it has something to do with another melody being played alongside the main melody, or in simpler terms, a secondary melody. It could be horns, choirs, or chants that are used to fight with another more prominent melody.
Let It Be uses quite a lot of this, as almost every song has some sort of jazzy horn or powerful choir piece that are both brewed together to form as one.
The band, without a doubt, has a very charming personality. They can make anything, whether it is the instrumentation or lyrics sound humorous, even if they’re striving to be serious or monumental; much of which occurs on this album. Just as with the original,
Let it Be (Laibach’s album), follows the same basic song structure as did The Beatles version, only slightly tweaked on some parts. This album is very applicable to raise an eyebrow with the listener, mostly because of how strange and unsettling it might seem at first, but if you give it time to grow on you, it’s a fun and incredibly unique album.
The track that stands out the most, which in my opinion is the pinnacle of emotion on this album, is ‘Across the Universe.’ Sung by a beautiful young lady with a gripping and captivating voice, this is an incredible ballad that is definitely one of Laibach’s best ever. It’s rather cheerful and less aggressive compared to the rest of the album; it’s basically the center of emotion for the album as a whole.
Despite the unfriendliness this album has towards most regular people, there are indeed catchier, attainable songs that are quite enjoyable. ‘Get Back’, ‘Two of Us’, and ‘I’ve Got a Feeling’ all have that boisterous, poppy attitude towards them and are very pleasurable and easier on the ears to digest. ‘One After 909’ has a rather peculiar guitar riff that repeats itself over and over again, and ‘I Me Mine’ has a slight droning add-on to the vocalist (him very slowly, sensually repeating the very words “I Me Mine”). There are a lot of catchy songs with this record, but also a lot of idiosyncratic, plain unnatural songs here, but really, they are all potent.
Let it Be is a very consistent album, despite it being rather inaccessible to most people. From beginning to end, this is a brilliant album that is comical yet outstandingly interesting. Furthermore, I encourage listeners to experience the whole album in one sitting, as it could very well end up being a memorable experience for many. Nothing on this album sounds similar at all, giving it a discrete feeling of power.
Let it Be is one hell of an album.
Mookid recs:
Across the Universe
Get Back
Two of Us
I’ve Got a Feeling
One After 909
