Customer Reviews

Let It Be

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Laibach offers up its Slavic/industrial track-for-track interpretation of the Beatles album of the same name. "Across the Universe" is actually quite nice. Everything else has been turned on its ear. The droning "I Me Mine" and "For You Blue" sound positively evil. No collection of Euro-industrial music or Beatles exotica is complete without it. Crank it up and convince your neighbors you're insane.

All these negative reviews... obviously pretentious Beatles lovers. As another reviewr said, most Beatles lovers will no doubt be angered by this disc and not "get it". Well it's their loss because this album is pure genius. The Beatles wrote it, Laibach re-wrote it thus, genius. If you read the negative comments you'll see that they really aren't objective at all, rather subjective to the person's own prejudices & tastes. Why am I not speaking about how the albums sounds? Well there's no real way to describe it. Perhaps The Beatles inside out and on their heads? Go into it with an open mind and you'll be pleased. Go into this expecting some ass-kissing interpretation of The Beatles, forget it. This is what a true cover cd would sound like.

When Yugoslavian Dictator, Tito, bought the collective farm the members of Laibach knew that their country would soon break apart. What could they do to document the changes that they foresaw? What else, re-make the Beatles' "Let it Be" album. The result was part Political Science lesson and part Performance Art. A stadium full of fans chants "I've gut ah Feehlink"; One After 909 is transformed into a Techno monster; we're treated to a beautiful version of Across the Universe then our eardrums are assaulted with Dig it. I was never a fan of the Beatles, but I love this CD. This is more art than music and, once you've heard it, you'll never be the same again.

I first purchased this as a cassette when it first came out. I loved everything on it but Across the universe is the real gem on this one. The cassette was loaned by me to someone I was working with who in turn decided to steal it! I guess she liked it, but hope that the misfortune that befalls all thieves catches up with her. After about 10 years I received another copy as a gift and was again blown away by the hard brash sound, the shouting Eastern European accent and the lighter than air ( but still hiding a knife behind its back) cover of "Across the Universe".
They take the Beatles classic and exploit it for all the cynicism, angst, and darkens hiding behind the fluff.

This is early Liabach. Pre break with their record company, pre-formation of a farming collective, pre-establishing their farm as an independent nation.
Oh yes.... they get darker and angrier. If you like this you will love their cover of Sympathy for the devil.

If the idea of ultra-arch totalitarian band Laibach turning 'Let it Be' into a set of martial, heavy metal stomp-rock songs doesn't appeal to you, you're strange. The music is grinding, over-the-top, loud and crashing, and the lyrics are spat out with total and utter contempt by a man with the most gravelly voice in all of pop. This record is great fun, and apart from the novelty of it, it works quite well as music, too. 'One After 909' becomes a Queen-esque hard rocker, 'Get Back' sounds a bit like Europe, and in amongst the sturm und drang there's a touching, floaty choral version of 'Across the Universe' (although the descent into giggles at the end unsettles). It's a lot less techno-ey than the similar 'Nato', an album which covered lots of different songs.

I haven't actually heard the Beatles album yet.

As you've probably gathered, this is german industrial group Laibach putting their own darkly humorous mock-fascist take on the Beatles' classic album of the same name. The result is sometimes disturbing (witness "I Me Mine" turned into a Wagnerian anthem fit for a fascist rally and a chorus of creepily sedate-sounding young girls chanting a downright cult-ish "across the universe"), sometimes hillarious (the ridiculously noodly heavy metal guitar solo of "One After 909" which quotes both "Eruption" by Van Halen and "Smoke On The Water" by Deep Purple), but always interesting. If you're a Beatles purist of some kind you'd probably find this album completely insulting, but as someone with a healthy respect for The Beatles who still has a sense of humor about them, I find it a much more intriguing reinvention of the album than Let It Be... Naked was.

This record contains by far the most beautiful and moving version of "Across the Universe" ever recorded. And yes, it's better than the original. Listen.

What the Leibach guys were thinking when they decided to give "Let It Be" a go, escapes me...

But they really succeed on giving those classic tracks a new totally different face. Listen to them yourself...

As a huge Beatles fan, I had to listen to this album... and the worst part of it was that, while listening to "The Long and Winding Road", I could not get myself NOT to miss the original. I mean... here are these guys singing a highly emotional song with their (laughs) full totalitarian "no feelings" concrete voices... and in the back, I still try to hear the orchestra...

I know, I know, the problem is me... okay... that's why I cannot hate this album... it is so different that one must clear his mind from the original recordins in order to enjoy this album...

I tried that... and unless you are into this totalitarian sound... there's nothing to be liked. (laughs)

Were they trying to see what the Beatles would sound like if they were born in Transilvania instead of Liverpool?

Well... the only track that clearly tries to do this is their "Accross the Universe" rendition with a "Slovenian-Mothers-of-Stalin"-like female choir singing it like if their sons lives depended on it.

The other tracks are the usual Leibach imagery that begs for a video (one with the same art directors who work for Marilyn Manson... or Prodigy...).

Still it is very strange when Leibach sing those beautiful lyrics. Do they know what they're singing? Do they know what those words mean? If they do (of course they do) it only makes this album even more strange - and I'm not equipped for this.

If you are looking for the Beatles, look somewhere else... but if you are looking for a very strange (a little bit repetitive) musical journey through the toxic, heartless factories of Vawkavysk (while asking yourself "where have I heard about this Joe-joe who was born in Tucson, Arizona before?")...

Then this CD is for you, blue!

Me? I can't wait for Leibach's attack on Mariah Carey's Emancipation of Mimi.

(laughs)

One of Laibach's more engaging albums. Though it lacks the brilliance of Nova Akropola, this one is worth it for the hilarious massacre of I've Got A Feeling. Levity, Laibach style.

This is unlike most any other album you have ever listen to. You know the tunes (or at least you think you do). From the opening reframes "GET BACK TO WHERE YOU ONCE BELONG" to the haunting version of I ME MINE to the purly Eastern Eurpean MAGGIE MAE this album is a masterpiece of its genre. What exactly that genre is I"ll leave to be clasified by someone more knowledgable than me. This album is spell binding in its own way. For fans of Laibach it goes without saying LET IT BE is a must for those unfimilar it is a perfect introduction. You might not know what you have heard once you've listen to it but you 'll know that you'll never listen to pop "classics" the same way again.