Mother Mary comes to me, speaking words of wisdom

The Beatles - Let It Be - 1970

So here we are. After having already written about the last album The Beatles ever recorded, today we have the last album they ever released.
Actually, by the time it was released, the band no longer existed, having disbanded one month before. The album spent quite a bit of time in what could be described as "development hell", partially because the constant tensions and disagreements within the band, and partially because they couldn't decide what type of post-production to settle on.
It is also an album that didn't sit too well with critics, and in this case I do have to agree, up to a certain extent. While I like it quite a lot, the thing that annoys me more, when listening to it again, is the mixture of "live", not much produced sounds, and the over-produced, full of choirs and strings songs in which Phil Spector had a lot of influence.
The original idea had actually been to go for a "rougher" sound after such big efforts in production in previous albums. Which makes me wonder why they picked Phil Spector, of all people, to produce this one.
Still, there is a lot of good stuff here, with some classics like "Across the Universe", "Get Back", "The Long and Winding Road" or the title track. But I also love some less known songs, like "I me mine", or "One after 909".

• The opening track, "Two of Us" ends with Paul saying "we're going home, you better believe it, good-bye". 
• In 2008, "Across the Universe" was transmitted by NASA as an Interstellar Message directed to the star Polaris. 
• The version of the title track in the documentary has the lyrics slightly changed. At the end of the song, he sings "Mother Mary comes to me / there will be no sorrow". I always thought the reference to "no sorrow" was actually about them breaking up the band. 
• While "The Long and Winding Road" has been criticised a lot because of the over-production, I have always liked it a lot. 
• "One after 909" is an upbeat, cheerful, pure rock song. At the end, they sing a bit of an altered version of the traditional "Danny Boy". Oh, the irony!
• Slovenian band Top Stripper makes a mean cover of "Get Back" in their live performances. I can't find any videos for it. Shame!!

Can you hear me from a thousand miles? 

Ten Years After - Cricklewood Green - 1970

I didn't really like their previous release much, but I'm happy to say that this one is a much better album. It has a good couple of bluesy rockers, especially at the beginning, and it sounds much entertaining than the previous one. 

It does have some more psychedelic jams, like "50000 miles beneath my brain", but still these are interesting to listen to. 

The album drags a bit towards the end, especially when we get to "Circles", which is an acoustic ballad that I can't qualify as anything as boring. 

But all in all, this is a good album, and I enjoyed listening to it. I don't really think I have any other albums by them, and I think I would like to listen to a bit more by them. 

• Their lyrics haven't improved much though. They seem to have two basic modes: outright silly and outright nonsense. 
• "50000" Miles Beneath my Brain" at times reminds me a bit of "Sympathy for the Devil". Not too sure why.

Bonus tracks

• I don't know if I mentioned it before, but in general I am not too much of a fan of covers in general, and least of all Beatles covers. I do think Fiona Apple did a great job with this one though. Also, seeing her smile is really rare. 

• And because I just mentioned it, and because I never had Beggars' Banquet, I'm going to put "Sympathy for the Devil" here. Not too off topic either, since you can see John Lennon dancing to it halfway through the video.