Album Summary: Let It Be

I have to say it (and I'm sure it's been said plenty of times before): Let It Be was not an impressive Beatles album. The fact that it was compiled from "leftover" Beatles songs, from before Abbey Road was even recorded, really shows. I now fully understand and agree with the majority of Beatles critics and fans who consider Abbey Road to be the official "final" Beatles album; the alternative is trying to swallow Let It Be as a goodbye, and it just doesn't work.

That's not to say that there weren't any noteworthy songs on this one. My favorite was "Across the Universe", a very well-written song, and I also enjoyed "Get Back" and "Let It Be" a great deal. Maybe the issue I had with the album as a whole was that it felt unfinished and raw, for whatever multitude of reasons there no doubt were. 

To be honest, I'm glad Let It Be exists. It feels like an encore performance--the band has already performed its best, having saved it for last, and they've exited the stage, only to come back and play one or two more songs. Those extra songs are never the most popular, but they're well-received and the crowd always cheers and almost always leaves happy. With The Beatles' break-up forefront in the fans' minds, Let It Be might have provided a therapeutic service: perhaps audiences would have been even more distraught over the break-up if The Beatles had left off at Abbey Road, definitely one of their all-time best albums. In that way, Let It Be tapers off the career of the greatest band of all time.

Although Let It Be is officially the unofficial end, I'm nowhere near done with this adventure. We still have to catch up with all the singles we've missed along the way (including the wonderful "Hey Jude", among others), so stay tuned. :)

Album Summary: Abbey Road

Abbey Road, with its many magnificent medleys, has been an interesting and bittersweet journey. It's technically the last album by The Beatles (as The Beatles, together) and its eclectic yet cohesive track listing lulls the audience into a false sense of security. 

At this point in time, the Beatles were putting on a show for the world, meanwhile knowing it was virtually over for them. There was the odd hope here or there that the group could be salvaged--and their business dealings reflected that delusion, scheduling them for more releases and recording sessions. However, deep down everyone in the know knew that it was over. 

Abbey Road was born in that uncertain atmosphere, starting with the biographical unity of "Come Together" and charming the listener with some of the best Harrison works of his career ("Something" and "Here Comes the Sun") and drawing the audience deeply into the music with an entrancing 8-song medley. This album also contains what may be my personal favorite: "Golden Slumbers / Carry That Weight", which I can listen to over and over without tiring of the lyrics or the tune.

In short, Abbey Road was a fitting send-off for the greatest band of the age. (This may be confusing, since we're about to start the next (and final) Beatles album, Let It Be, but we're about to clear that up. :) )

Album Summary: The Beatles

The Beatles, which I've (kind of) consistently referred to as the White Album, has been an incredibly interesting (and lengthy) journey. It contained several songs I'd heard previously, either on my own or in Across the Universe, and I really enjoyed hearing the originals, such as "Happiness is a Warm Gun", "Blackbird", and "Dear Prudence". I also heard many more songs I'd never known about but immediately loved, like "Glass Onion" with its self-references, and (re)discovered new favorites like "Rocky Raccoon" and "Helter Skelter".

Unlike some of their earlier albums (including my favorites, Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour), there didn't seem to be any kind of overarching theme, style, idea, plot, or vibe. It felt more like what it was: a collection of songs which had been created by some of the Beatles, one or two or three but rarely all four, at a time. All the same, it didn't feel disjointed to me. Rather, it felt like a branching-off, experimental, getting tired of things but going forth anyway, sort of voyage. The guys were getting sick of one another and so were going off and doing their own thing; they may or may not have realized that they were testing the waters for the future, seeing how far they could push or be pushed before the breaking point. Paul was simply the first to realize just where that point was for him.

It seems to me that the White Album really was a turning point for the Beatles. From what history I gleaned over the past two and a half weeks or so, the guys were no longer fighting the world and their own celebrity so much as fighting one another. Having been so well established as a cohesive unit over the past several years, it must have felt exhausting to them, trying to have their own individual voices heard over the others. It's not surprising to me that they all went on to solo careers, and it's not surprising that such a wildly prolific and celebrated group didn't last long--they were burning the candle at both ends, truly.

Although The Beatles is widely regarded as the beginning of the end for "The Beatles" as a group, it's certainly not the last album they created during their remaining time together. We'll start a few new songs from Yellow Submarine tomorrow. See you then. :)

Album Summary: Magical Mystery Tour

Magical Mystery Tour has been a fantastic album--almost as great as Sgt. Pepper in my mind. We went through several more classic Beatles songs (including "I Am the Walrus", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane", and today's "All You Need Is Love"), and I got to hear plenty of new (to me) songs that I loved.

MMT seemed to me like the perfect follow-up album to Sgt. Pepper. It continued on the psychedelic path its forerunner had established, but still took an offshoot route. Although it didn't seem to have the same kind of "journey" vibe, it still had more of that than previous albums, which I quite enjoyed. Overall, this is probably my second-favorite album so far. :)

See you tomorrow for a new song and a new album!

Album Summary: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

This has been, hands down, my favorite Beatles album. Honestly, I can't imagine it getting any better than this (though I'm still looking forward to seeing what comes next) and plenty of people agree on that point. Sgt. Pepper has been voted The Beatles' greatest album, and the greatest album of all time, many times over. 

There's absolutely no way I can choose just a couple of songs that stood out to me this time, because they all did. If you forced me to pick just one song, I'd probably say "A Day in the Life" because I've been very fond of that one ever since I heard it however long ago. Still, so many of the others call out to me. 

What makes this album special, besides the copious amounts of drugs the guys were taking at the time (which totally had an effect, I don't care what Sir Paul says; it doesn't have to be positive or negative, simply a fact), is how inventive and bold they were, not only with their music and lyrics, but with putting their personalities into their music more than they'd ever done before. Every song feels like a love letter, like it was painstakingly and lovingly crafted just for me (or you). It's almost beyond description.

Overall, if I were giving grades, Sgt. Pepper would get an A+, with extra credit and bonus points. And probably several stickers of gold stars and "You did it!" as well. Just 'cause.

So, until tomorrow, that's all. :) See you then.

Album Summary: Revolver

Revolver has been an incredible album, full of new sounds and creative lyrics, and inventive musical stylings. The Beatles really outdid themselves on this one. 

Although we skipped a couple of songs ("And Your Bird Can Sing", "Doctor Robert", etc.), the album had tons of new and fascinating ones. It's very difficult to choose just one or two favorites; I loved "Eleanor Rigby", "Yellow Submarine", "She Said She Said", "Got to Get You into My Life", and most of the others. 

I think what I loved most about Revolver was how fresh it was, and how bold the guys were to take it in such a unique direction. From George's Indian influence and use of traditional North Indian instruments like the sitar, to John and Paul's ever-evolving lyrical partnership, to Ringo's reliable quirkiness, The Beatles shine in Revolver, both as a musical group and as individual artists. Overall, if I were to give this album a grade, it would get an A+. :)

Tomorrow never knows... except that we're ready for the next album. See you then!

Album Summary: Help!

As I'm sure you can guess, Help! is by far my favorite album (at least up to this point!). Some critics and music experts may say that the true turning point for The Beatles musically was a specific song in some earlier album, but I think the action truly happened right here. There's just something about the feel of these songs together that makes this album something pretty awesome.

I loved almost every song on Help! which makes it difficult to narrow down my favorites. So difficult, in fact, that I won't do it. It would be like asking a parent to choose her favorite child--she might have one, but she'll never admit it (unless she's kind of a crappy parent, I suppose). A couple of the tracks on the album were songs we've already heard (specifically "Tell Me What You See" and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" from Beatles VI), but the rest were original, musical gold.

As far as the album's relationship to the film is concerned, I'll have to wait to talk about that until Netflix sends me the movie--I'll discuss that aspect of the album in the movie review. Until then, stay tuned for today's post, the first song from Rubber Soul. :)

Album Summary: Beatles for Sale

Overall, Beatles for Sale was a fantastic album. We're finally getting into the good stuff, in my opinion; the guys are slowly moving away from the classic rock-and-roll and rockabilly songs and migrating towards their own original material. Of course we've already seen a lot of great original stuff, but this album is much more autobiographical, making it better musically, lyrically, and stylistically.

My favorite tracks were "I'm a Loser", "I'll Follow the Sun", "Mr. Moonlight", and "Eight Days a Week". These songs really stuck out to me and my personal tastes. :) I could listen to "I'll Follow the Sun" over and over--the guitar's amazing. And of course, "Eight Days a Week" will forever be a classic and never fails to remind me of how quirky Ringo was (and is).

One particular thing I like about this album that doesn't have much to do with the songs themselves is actually the photo used for the album cover. Wikipedia says, "The downbeat mood of the songs on Beatles for Sale was reflected in the album cover, which shows the unsmiling, weary-looking Beatles in an autumn scene photographed at Hyde Park, London." They do indeed look exhausted; it's as if their somber faces foreshadow the turmoil that will come in the next several years (and decades). Very good photo. :)


That's all for Beatles for Sale... it was a good one! I'll see you tomorrow as we check out a couple songs from the next album, Beatles '65. :)

Album Summary: A Hard Day's Night

This has been a pretty great album. I actually have a lot of favorites from this one--"A Hard Day's Night", "If I Fell", "Can't Buy Me Love", etc., most of them from the first side. This album marked a new page for The Beatles--they were growing as musicians and songwriters, trying out new ideas, being innovative and daring with their music, and growing exponentially more popular. I agree with the statement that A Hard Day's Night represented the idea of Beatlemania--I can definitely imagine how psychotic those crowds of screeching teenagers were (it's not difficult to picture it, considering the modern-day examples we have now).

I'll end this summary with a quote from music critic Richie Unterberger:

George Harrison's resonant 12-string electric guitar leads were hugely influential; the movie helped persuade The Byrds, then folksingers, to plunge all out into rock & roll, and the Beatles would be hugely influential on the folk-rock explosion of 1965. The Beatles' success, too, had begun to open the US market for fellow Brits like the Rolling Stones, the Animals, and the Kinks, and inspired young American groups like the Beau Brummels, Lovin' Spoonful, and others to mount a challenge of their own with self-penned material that owed a great debt to Lennon-McCartney.

Album Summary: The Beatles' Second Album

This album was a fun ride. I'd already listened several songs from it, but there were plenty of great new ones to hear. It's been an interesting journey, to have started with the British albums and then moved on to the American ones--they're often quite similar, but sometimes a new arrangement or the addition of different songs can change the mood of the entire album. Below is a quote from the wiki page for The Beatles' Second Album:

Unlike the contemporaneous British Beatles albums, The Beatles' Second Album is composed exclusively of uptempo numbers, and for this reason is a favorite of some Beatles aficionados and rock critics. "The Beatles' Second Album stands as probably best pure rock & roll album ever issued of the group's music" [sic], wrote Allmusic.

It's hard to go wrong, with covers of classic songs by Chuck Berry, Smokey Robinson, Little Richard, and The Marvelettes, all sung in The Beatles' own style but paying tribute to the greatness of the originals, as well as some awesome new material like "She Loves You". :)

Well, tomorrow is a new day, and a new album. I'll see you then. :)

Album Summary: With The Beatles

Another album's flown by. I can't believe I've been doing this blog for almost a month. :P

Honestly, I think I enjoyed With The Beatles a little more than Please Please Me. I recognized more of the songs (and not just because I've seen Across the Universe, like, a thousand times), the songs were a little better and more creative, and there were lots of covers of truly great songs thrown in with original stuff to stir it up a bit. I think my favorite songs were "Don't Bother Me", "I Wanna Be Your Man", and "You've Really Got a Hold on Me". Those stand out to me for various reasons--George and Ringo's talents are showcased in the first and second, respectively, and the third is simply a great cover of a great song.

Overall, it was a really fun experience. :) Doing this blog has opened up an entire world of music for me; before now, I'd never taken the time to listen to a lot of what Motown has to offer, and I can thank The Beatles for nudging me in the right direction. I'm excited to start the next album tomorrow, and to see where it takes me. :)

Album Summary: Please Please Me

We've reached the end of the first album, so it's time for an album summary!

Please Please Me was a neat album. It showcased The Beatles' early style and I enjoyed listening to it. I liked some songs more than others, of course; "Anna (Go to Him)" was probably my favorite, but "Do You Want to Know a Secret" had that nostalgic charm for me, and "Boys" was so fun and subtly subversive I couldn't help but enjoy it. I also liked the research aspect; looking up the history (or at least what I like to call the Wikipedia version of events) not only helped me understand the song's music and lyrics, but also gave me a tiny glimpse into the guys' heads at the time. I'm sure it would be well worth the $65.99 to purchase the Beatles anthology, but for a free version, it's not half bad.

That's about it for the summary... tomorrow I'll begin listening to With the Beatles so I'll catch you then!