IT'S amazing that these songs have been allowed to wallow under what a blanket of muddy production and overblown orchestration for quite so long.

But for 33 years, all we had was the Phil Spector produced Let It Be album which sounded at times more like an outtakes bootleg than the coherent swansong it could have been.

In an unlikely but superb move, Paul and Ringo (and George before his death) decided those niggles they had about the project had to be confronted.

Stripped down, reassembled and reordered, it has finally blossomed into a worthy epitaph.

Gone are the joke throwaways Dig It and Maggie May and in comes the superb 'rooftop' version of Lennon's passionate Don't Let Me Down, originally consigned to b-side status on a single.

Thankfully the band's original desire for a back-to-basics approach has been honoured on Let It Be, The Long and Winding Road and Across The Universe with all that kitsch orchestration stripped off.

And the rest of the production allows the instruments to finally breathe, reinvigorating great little ditties like Dig A Pony, One After 909 and I've Got A Feeling.

It's a revelation which consigns the old Let It Be album to redundant curio status.

JS