Most Beatles albums are sacrosanct—outside of a gentle remaster or remix, it would be sacrilege to mess around with Abbey Road or Revolver. But with Let It Be, dissatisfaction was baked in from the start. The project was envisioned as a back-to-basics rock album after years of psychedelic experimentation—but the rehearsals, famously captured as part of a documentary film, yielded a crop of solid tunes, if occasionally lackluster performances. There were disagreements about mixes, including a rejected version from engineer Glyn Johns and controversial overdubs led by producer Phil Spector. (Decades later, Paul McCartney spearheaded a scaled-back remix dubbed Let It Be… Naked.) But a new five-disc, 50th anniversary edition has a leg up in sprawl. Johns’ previously unreleased 1969 mix appears here, with all its heavy studio chatter, false starts and shaky playing. Only the most hardcore of the “return to roots” purists would ever pick this over the original record—but with The Beatles, every iteration carries historical value, so it’s satisfying to officially have it. The new remix is the essential presentation, with Giles Martin and Sam Okell subtly enhancing the sonics: Take “Two of Us,” with added punch to Ringo Starr’s kick drum and a more balanced stereo spread to the vocal harmonies. Equally fascinating are the scraps of between-song chatter and shit-kicking, like McCartney randomly breaking into the lyrics of “Please Please Me” during during take 10 of “Let It Be,” or George Harrison detailing a request of “cheese sauce for the cauliflower” before a run-through of “Polythene Pam.” With all its loaded backstory, it’s hard to imagine anyone, within or without of The Beatles, being 100 percent satisfied. But we’ve never been closer.