Matt Berninger – “Let It Be”

Matt Berninger – “Let It Be”

Back in October, Matt Berninger released his first solo album, Serpentine Prison. The collection was produced by the legendary Booker T. Jones, and the whole project started to come together when Berninger sent Jones some early demos even though he’d been looking to make a covers album. In the end, they recorded a bunch of extra material, and Berninger insinuated that it’d all see the light of day eventually.

That bonus material is part of a new deluxe edition of Serpentine Prison, which will be out digitally in March. (There’s also a new vinyl edition of the album available from Berninger’s site.) When we spoke to Berninger last fall, he specified that the covers included in the sessions were Morphine’s “In Spite Of Me,” Eddie Floyd’s “Big Bird,” Bettye Swan’s “Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye,” and the Velvet Underground’s “European Son.” There were also some originals left over, and tonight Berninger has shared one of them.

The new track is called “Let It Be,” but it isn’t a Beatles cover; it’s a title-as-cover a la the Replacements. Berninger co-wrote it with his old Nancy bandmate Mike Brewer, who was also involved in other material for Serpentine Prison. Accordingly, “Let It Be” has that same dusty, late-night acoustic ballad approach that defined much of the album. There’s some nice dramatic organ swells and wistful harmonica peels in this one too. Check it out below.

The deluxe edition of Serpentine Prison will be out 3/12.

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