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1.30pm
26 January 2017
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Art is the best word to describe the White Album . It’s completely wild and crazy, but it doesn’t lose its personality at all.
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12.49pm
26 January 2017
Offline I haven’t attempted a ranking since my early days in the Forum so here goes
11. Beatles For Sale – There are some songs I really love here but to me this is an awkward filler album in between AHDN (the peak of their early work) and the greater heights to come, with too many cover songs and not enough energy. Not bad, but not great either.
10. With The Beatles – Like Beatles For Sale , this one has some great songs, but isn’t really a breakthrough in any way, and kind of repeats what PPM did without significantly changing anything up.
9. Please Please Me – The one that introduced them to the world, with a killer opening and closing, but a couple of slightly drab songs letting it down.
8. Help ! – A big creative breakthrough into new styles of songwriting and musicianship, but it’s held back by sticking to the album formula of their previous releases. I think it would be a lot higher if it properly embraced the album format.
7. Let It Be – This one may be lacking in cohesiveness and may be a step back from its predecessors in many ways, but it’s got a very endearing quality to it from all its rawness and imperfection. It’s like they took time off from being studio revolutionary gods to just kick back and make a good old classic rock record.
6. A Hard Day’s Night – The essence of Beatlemania captured and bottled perfectly. You can really hear the energy and excitement of a band taking over the world as it was being recorded. Lennon/McCartney’s songwriting had come on leaps and bounds, evidenced by the lack of covers, and I love George’s Rickenbacker tone too.
5. Rubber Soul – The bridge between rock and roll and psychedelia was the folk rock movement of 1965, and this is one of its most important moments, providing a stepping stone between the two sides of their career. The songwriting is absolutely masterful, and it’s great to hear them dipping their toes into more and more varieties of tone and music. My only criticisms would be a pair of songs I’m not fond of at all (What Goes On and Run For Your Life ) but otherwise it’s perfect.
4. Sgt Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band – A true creative breakthrough that positioned them as musical leaders of the counterculture. This one takes all the innovation and ideas present on Revolver and puts them into the context of one of the first concept albums. While I can’t help but feel it’s somewhat thin as a collection of songs, the overall presentation and its resulting effect is stunning.
3. Abbey Road – They really pulled out all the stops here, for the last album they ever recorded. The results are pretty stunning, with perhaps Ringo’s finest moment with the band, extremely strong compositions from George and best of all, the medley, one of the peaks of 60s rock music.
2. Revolver – This is where all the developing they’d done came to fruition. It’s so full of ideas and innovation its hard to know where to begin in describing it. Tomorrow Never Knows in particular is one of their very best, such a unique and creative track, signposting the way to the future.
1. The White Album – They’d left Liverpool, they’d toured the world, they’d grown up with their music and songwriting and they’d made what most people considered their masterpiece. How do you even begin to follow up Sgt Pepper ? Well, they chose to follow it by letting their creativity loose in order to create their masterpiece: a glorious double album with their personality present at every moment. It’s wild, unpredictable and messy, but it’s the most engrossing and fascinating album experience one could hope to have.
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vonbontee, Getbackintheussr, JulesI've been up on the mountain, and I've seen his wondrous grace,
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9.29pm
13 January 2019
Offline Here’s my ranking:
13. Yellow Submarine
12. With The Beatles
11. Beatles For Sale
10. Please Please Me
9. Let It Be
6. Help
5. Rubber Soul
4. Abbey Road
3. White Album
2. Revolver
1. Sgt Pepper
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10.29pm
19 December 2018
Offline Ah, I always want to make full comments for each album yet always forget it. Anyway, here’s my list:
1. Sgt. Pepper
2. Revolver
3. Rubber Soul
4. Abbey Road
5. Help !
7. White Album
10. With The Beatles
11. Let It Be
12. Beatles For Sale
13. Yellow Submarine
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9.20am
1 May 2019
Offline 
Joe said
It was a double (6-song) EP here in the UK originally, and Capitol added a load of a-sides and b-sides so they could put it out as a full-length album. So for years (until November 1976) it was only available on import. When the CDs came out it became part of the official canon worldwide.Interestingly, Capitol did with MMT what EMI/Parlophone had done in the UK with A Hard Day’s Night and Help ! – ie put the soundtrack songs on side one, with other songs making up the remainder. Capitol chose not to do the same with AHDN and H!, instead putting out incidental music such as orchestral versions of This Boy . Imagine if they’d done the same with Magical Mystery Tour – we might have seen the inclusion of Shirley’s Wild Accordion, Jessie’s Dream etc.
Wasn’t there a problem with the motion picture A Hard Days’ Night being a United Artists release, and so the soundtrack was on UA records? Since it technically isn’t Capitol Records, they couldn’t put other songs on it. Don’t know if the same was true for Help !, since the American release was on Capitol.
Of course, there was always the inclusion of “filler” to make you buy more albums. This was one of the motivations for me to buy the British versions back in 1981, since I didn’t want filler. And there were more songs on each album (13 or 14 vs. 10 or 11 on American records).
9.55am
Reviewers
17 December 2012
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From what I remember, @jamessick, the UA contract was signed before Capitol took up their option on the group, meaning Brian was able to include a US soundtrack album to be released on UA for the first film. It was a done deal by the time Capitol took up their option; though it didn’t bar Capitol from releasing the songs, just from doing it on an album called A Hard Day’s Night . And so the songs on Parlophone’s AHDN appeared across several Capitol album, the most prominent of which was Something New, which featured 8 of the 13 Parlophone album tracks.
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The Beatles Bible 2020 non-Canon Poll Part One: 1958-1963 and Part Two: 1964-August 1966
3.55pm
30 April 2019
Offline I finally have a set-ish ranking because it took awhile to decide anything beyond Abbey Road GOOD.
Btw this is somewhat of a favorite thing more than best and I still like all of them.
1. Abbey Road
2. Sgt. Pepper
3. White Album
4. Revolver
6. Let It Be
7. Rubber Soul
8. Help
11. Beatles For Sale
12. With the Beatles
13. Yellow Submarine
4-8 tend to move around alot
4.09am
16 November 2019
Offline I know I’m nearly 10 years late, but this is a great opportunity to voice the correct album ranking!
Note: I’m judging based on a combination of musical ingenuity/talent with individual tracks, how well the tracks work together as an entire album, and how “listenable” each albums and its tracks are. I allow up to 5 highlights and 5 lowlights for each album. I have allowed double these amounts for The Beatles / The White Album due to its extended length as an album.
So, without further ado:
1. Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Does this one really need any explanation? Sgt. Pepper ‘s has been produced and refined so well that the songs blend together beautifully into one piece of art. I tend to this of this album as an expanded Abbey Road Medley, with more diverse styles worked into it. It contains all the artistic individuality of the White Album without any of the… less enjoyable?… tracks (see #5 on my list). Sgt Pepper ‘s also acts brilliantly as a sort of musical rollercoaster, bringing the listener directly from the dreamy, pop-esque psychedelia that is Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds to an Indian-inspired, optimistic Getting Better , and so on. The contrast between SPLHCB (Reprise) and A Day In The Life is also fairly startling, but leads to a fantastic conclusion to the sparkling album. Highlights: Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds , Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite !, Within You Without You , Lovely Rita , A Day In The Life . Lowlights: None.
2. Revolver – This one narrowly misses the top spot, only because of the slight disjoint you can feel between some of the tracks (for example, the transition in styles from Yellow Submarine to She Said She Said is a bit jarring) and the lessened “artistry” when compared to Sgt. Pepper ‘s. However, I would probably favour Revolver in terms of lyrical and thematic ideas in each individual track. The first five tracks alone have such diverse themes, with Eleanor Rigby being a standout, that Revolver takes its place as one of the most mind-blowing sets of songs to ever be released in history. Highlights: Taxman , Eleanor Rigby , She Said She Said , For No One , Tomorrow Never Knows . Lowlights: Yellow Submarine .
3. Abbey Road – The finality and subtle melancholy throughout this album, even from the beginning, was enough to have me in quiet, awe-inspired tears when first listening to it. The medley is a brilliant idea, and strangely works as a whole despite the seemingly disjointed themes within the lyrics. Additionally, Abbey Road is my favourite album to fall asleep to, as opposed to Help ! or A Hard Day’s Night which seem to be better “wake-up” albums for me. A year ago, this album would have fallen slightly lower on my list, but I’ve grown to love nearly all of the tracks. Abbey Road was the best way the Beatles could have broken up, although it’s disappointing to think that we probably missed out on many more potential Beatles hits. Ah, what could have been! Highlights: Come Together , Something , I Want You (She’s So Heavy), Here Comes The Sun , Abbey Road Medley. Lowlights: None.
4. Rubber Soul – Although it’s a fairly cliché thing to say, Rubber Soul was the first album that moved past the “transitional” stage of the Beatles. Their songwriting skills throughout this album were already furlongs ahead of their time, as were the use of more and more unconventional recording techniques and instrumentation. The only issue I have with Rubber Soul is that it can feel a bit low-energy at times, especially with Ringo’s slightly off-tune vocal in What Goes On . Without this downfall, it probably would have beaten Abbey Road into the top 3. Nevertheless, Rubber Soul is a fun, folky listen that takes a giant leap towards the brilliance that was to come. Highlights: Norwegian Wood , Girl, I’m Looking Through You , In My Life . Lowlights: What Goes On .
5. The Beatles / The White Album – This album may be a bit tiring to listen to all at once, but it works very well as a compilation of individual tracks, most of which are actually very respectable. There are some tracks near the end that definitely seem more low-energy, however it is an astounding album considering the stress the Beatles were going through during 1968. The Beatles also includes many hilarious, surprisingly light-hearted tracks which unfortunately didn’t make my Highlights list, including Rocky Raccoon , Piggies , Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da , Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?, Savoy Truffle , Honey Pie , and Everybody’s Got Something To Hide Except Me And My Monkey . Highlights: Back In The USSR , Dear Prudence , While My Guitar Gently Weeps , Happiness Is A Warm Gun , Blackbird , I Will , Helter Skelter , Long, Long, Long . Lowlights: Wild Honey Pie , Revolution 9 , Good Night .
6. Help ! – From now on, I’m writing shorter explanations! Help !, although sounding distinctly “folkier” than its predecessors and successors, is an energy-packed cry for… help… continuing the Beatles’ general message to their fans after Beatles For Sale . This album would be higher on the list if it didn’t include some tracks which sound more like With The Beatles songs than some of the album’s more complex ones. Highlights: Help !, You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away , You’re Going To Lose That Girl , I’ve Just Seen A Face , Yesterday . Lowlights: Tell Me What You See , Dizzy Miss Lizzy .
7. Magical Mystery Tour – A dizzying album with a distinctly more sparkling Side Two than Side One. Definitely feels like a vivid representation of an LSD trip. (not that I’ve ever been on one!… heh…) It should be noted that, although Hello, Goodbye is a great track, it doesn’t fit into the album nearly as well as the others. Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane , the clear standouts from the album, also seem to fit better on Sgt. Pepper ‘s than they do here. Highlights: The Fool On The Hill , Strawberry Fields Forever , Penny Lane , Baby You’re A Rich Man . Lowlights: Flying , Your Mother Should Know , Hello, Goodbye .
8. A Hard Day’s Night – An energy-packed leap into the forefront of the pop music scene. The incorrectly accented beats at the beginning of I’ll Be Back still confuse me to this day, yet I love it. Highlights: Can’t Buy Me Love , A Hard Day’s Night , I’ll Be Back . Lowlights: I’m Happy Just To Dance With You , I’ll Cry Instead .
9. Beatles For Sale – It may be a controversial decision to put this album even this high on the list, but Beatles For Sale gains points for having eight outstanding compositions that make up for the six questionable covers. Although some of said covers are performed brilliantly, there are just too many of them to really be able to place this album higher up. Highlights: No Reply , I’m A Loser , I’ll Follow The Sun , Eight Days A Week , What You’re Doing . Lowlights: Mr Moonlight , Kansas City / Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey, Words Of Love .
10. Let It Be – A great compilation of songs that struggles to keep up with the mass of pure brilliance that precedes it. The Naked version is vastly superior in every way, but I’m judging based on Phil Spector’s version. Highlights: Two Of Us , Across The Universe , Get Back . Lowlights: Dig It , Maggie Mae , One After 909 .
11. Yellow Submarine – The four new, Beatles-made tracks are peculiar and utterly fantastic. The orchestral soundtrack pieces, not so much, although I will give a shoutout to possibly the best track names in any Beatles album: Pepperland Laid Waste, March Of The Meanies … ridiculous; awesome. It’s a shame these weren’t names of actual Beatles songs. Highlights: Hey Bulldog , It’s All Too Much . Lowlights: orchestral soundtrack.
12. With The Beatles – Not much to say about this one, except that it’s a clear step ahead of Please Please Me . Highlights: It Won’t Be Long , All My Loving , I Wanna Be Your Man . Lowlights: Little Child , Devil In Her Heart .
13. Please Please Me – Incredible when you realise it was only made in one day (with a couple exceptions). But, wait, aren’t you allowed more than one day to create an album? Why, of course you are! In that case… a fairly lacklustre album. A good beginning and finale, but most of the rest seems like rushed filler. Highlights: I Saw Her Standing There , Twist And Shout . Lowlights: Misery , Chains , Baby It’s You , A Taste Of Honey .
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18 December 2017
Offline have i done this? oh well the time has come. don’t expect anything intelligent.
1. revolver – nothing wrong with this album???? perfection????
2. help! – for some reason i just really love it.
3. Rubber Soul – it’s just great.
4. White Album – so much different stuff!!
5. sgt peppers – again, such a good variety.
6. Abbey Road – classic.
7. Please Please Me – underrated good shit
8. Magical Mystery Tour – wild.
9. hard days night – it’s ok
10. Beatles For Sale – ok but a little worse
11. let it be – i like it i just don’t love it
12. with the beatles – the worst of the ok trinity
13. yellow submarine – george martin moment
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8.23pm
24 June 2019
Offline Paxo8 said
I know I’m nearly 10 years late, but this is a great opportunity to voice the correct album ranking!Note: I’m judging based on a combination of musical ingenuity/talent with individual tracks, how well the tracks work together as an entire album, and how “listenable” each albums and its tracks are. I allow up to 5 highlights and 5 lowlights for each album. I have allowed double these amounts for The Beatles / The White Album due to its extended length as an album.
Wow! I love your detailing of each album here.
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7.47am
5 November 2019
Offline May have already done this but oh well,
1. Revolver
2. Rubber Soul
3. Sgt Pepper
4. A Hard Days Night – Wouldn’t usually put this album so high but I have loved listening to it recently
5. Abbey Road
6. White Album
8. Help
10. With The Beatles
11. Beatles For Sale
12. Let it Be
13. Yellow Submarine
12.54pm
7 February 2020
Offline I made an animated video ranking all of The Beatles albums worst to best. Just a warning, the video is very satirical, so don’t take any offensive stuff I say too seriously. I love all of The Beatles and their albums, even if I joke around a bit with them: feature=youtu.be
Enjoy!
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Moderators
27 November 2016
Offline Love the video!
Not a lot I disagree with, either – totally agree re. The Long And Winding Road as well.
Welcome to the forum! I subscribed, that was really funny…
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11.49pm
25 February 2020
Offline - The Beatles
- Revolver
- Abbey Road
- Sgt. Pepper ‘s
- Rubber Soul
- Magical Mystery Tour
- Help !
- Let It Be
- Beatles For Sale
- A Hard Day’s Night
- Yellow Submarine
- Please Please Me
- With the Beatles
2.02am
3 November 2019
Offline Welp, guess I better make my list:
1. Sgt. Pepper –what can I say? It’s flawless.
2. Revolver –while I consider this a practice run of sorts for #1, I actually listen to it probably more than any other Beatles album.
3. Abbey Road –how have I not listened to this album more often? Oh well. I prefer the medley on side two, but side one is obviously wonderful. Perfect swan song.
4. Rubber Soul –So good. I especially love Norwegian Wood , and Nowhere Man was like my favorite Beatles song as a kid.
5. White Album –I am of the opinion that this should’ve been a single album, since some of these songs are so unnecessary. But some of them…they’re just great.
6. Help !–there are 8 songs on this album that I love, and the rest I just don’t care for. If only they had left Yesterday as the album closer…
7. Magical Mystery Tour –is this even a coherent album? I always think of Strawberry Fields and Penny Lane as separate. I’m also not a huge fan of tracks 3, 4, and 5.
8. A Hard Day’s Night –the first album of entirely original material? That deserves recognition.
9. Please Please Me –”cuddly” is probably how I’d describe how this album makes me feel. Great debut.
10. Let It Be –not a huge fan of this album, if I’m being honest. Some amazing songs on it though, of course.
11. With the Beatles–it breaks my heart to rank this one so low, since All My Loving is perhaps my favorite Beatles song of all time. But oh well 
12. Beatles For Sale –after an entire album of original material, this could only be a disappointment. That said, there are still great songs on it.
13. Yellow Submarine –is this even a Beatles album, at the end of the day? Obvious last place finisher.
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28 February 2020
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8 August 2019
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Most of them unforgettable, honestly. Any bold letters are either a 10/10 or a 0/10.
13) Yellow Submarine (1969) – A weird, messy, boring-ass album. Repeated music (All You Need Is Love , Yellow Submarine ), dumb music (All Together Now , Only A Northern Song ), and few good songs (Hey Bulldog , It’s All Too Much ). And side B isn’t interesting. And it’s not even that I dislike instrumental orchestration, I love soundtracks and ambient records, side B of Yellow Submarine just happens to be a sub-par album on its own already, so it makes it worst. This is not David Bowie’s Low, it is a cheap soundtrack for a cheap animated film. and at the end, it isn’t a Beatles album at all, it’s just a collection of a couple of tracks, old and new, and it is severely lacking in presence from the band. 3/10
Tracks I love: Hey Bulldog – It’s All Too Much
Tracks I hate: Sea Of Monsters – Pepperland Laid Waste – Yellow Submarine in Pepperland
12) Help ! (1965) – just a step back given it was after Beatles For Sale , which was loads better. the covers are off the charts bad and the film doesn’t complement the songs as much as A Hard Day’s Night does with its tracks. It is repetitive, loaded with filler and with inconsistency in pace and structure. Dizzy Miss Lizzy ending the album after Yesterday is one of the worst decisions possible and it was solely made for commercial reasons. There was some experimentation and I give it that, Ticket To Ride and Yesterday were particularly outstanding comparing them to some older songs. But I still can’t get into those tracks as much. 4/10
Tracks I love: none
Tracks I hate: Act Naturally – Dizzy Miss Lizzy
11) A Hard Day’s Night (1964) – I liked the film better than Help !, and it does have And I Love Her in it, but some of the songs are terrible like I’ll Cry Instead which is one of the single worst and most derivative songs written on the 1960s. Still there are no lame covers on it (no covers at all actually, which says something for the originality album). 5/10
Tracks I love: And I Love Her
Tracks I hate: I’ll Cry Instead – When I Get Home
10) With the Beatles (1963) – Just very basic, early Beatles material. A step down from the Please Please Me sessions and an anticlimatic and unrewarding experience in the Beatles catalogue overall. But it is more consistent than other records, even if it features a lot of boring covers. The biggest thing it has going for it is that is looks like a carbon copy of Please Please Me , take it or leave it. 5/10
Tracks I love: All I’ve Got To Do
Tracks I hate: Roll Over Beethoven – Devil In Her Heart – Not A Second Time
9) Beatles For Sale (1964) – One of the better early albums. It is half decent original compositions and half decent covers. I think it’s what most people say Help ! is. The chemistry is there, even if they sound wore out. I like it enough. 6/10
Tracks I love: I’ll Follow The Sun
Tracks I hate: Honey Don’t
8) Please Please Me (1963) – A great debut album. It has a lot of covers, but it feels like the better bunch landed here, including Twist And Shout which is a complete change up of the original song and it makes it way better, or Anna (Go to Him), a fantastic rendition of John’s vocal abilities and passion display. Even if it has aged worst than most of the Beatles’ catalogue, there’s a certain charm to it, maybe even because of that; a lot of energy and good melodies. I can stand it the whole way through and it does feel rewarding. 7/10
Tracks I love: Anna (Go To Him) – Ask Me Why – Please Please Me – Baby It’s You – Twist And Shout
Tracks I hate: Love Me Do – There’s a Place
7) Rubber Soul (1965) – A classic. Featuring fantastic Beatles’ song like In My Life and Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown). John and George coming through as songwriter, which Paul McCartney would become fully on Revolver , for my taste. Some crap like What Goes On is occasionally included though, and there’s a lot of early-sounding material that I think drowns it with the early bunch more than with the latter. A lot of people say Rubber Soul was the turning point but for me it was Revolver . I mean, at least half of the tracklist is so-so, The Word , Drive My Car , Wait , You Won’t See Me . To me these are all flawed compositions with no edge whatsoever. But in the big picture it is worth it for a tracklist where Michelle and Nowhere Man are not even the highlights. 8/10
Tracks I love: Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) – Nowhere Man – Michelle – In My Life – If I Needed Someone
Tracks I hate: Think For Yourself – What Goes On
6) Let It Be (1970) – Overhated. Even though Spector didn’t make the best job producing it, the quality songs are still there. it includes Get Back and Let It Be , which are classic, and silent masterpieces like Dig A Pony and I’ve Got A Feeling . The mix on Across The Universe , the length of Dig It and the lack of Don’t Let Me Down are underwhelming, and Maggie Mae is flat out bad, but the feel of sorrow throughout the album is interesting, and the little edits between songs are welcome. An album as scattered as it is amusing because of it. 8/10
Tracks I love: Dig A Pony – I Me Mine – Let It Be – I’ve Got A Feeling
Tracks I hate: Maggie Mae
5) The Beatles (1968) – A complex album. If you take into account the good songs on it, it deserves its high place on pop culture, some songs on it are my favourite songs ever, most of all Dear Prudence , truly one of the most beautiful songs I’ve ever heard. But the amount of songs makes two things sure, not every songs is excellent, and not every song is bad. And the listening experience degrades because of it. Variety doesn’t always mean quality. Revolver is a better example of variety meeting perfection, the White Album isn’t, but that is also the fun of it, when you’ve already established which tracks are your favourites, then it’s just a matter of time before they appear in the tracklist, and getting to them is the point of the experience, even if it’s not the ultimate tight experience. 8/10
Tracks I love: Back in the U.S.S.R. – Dear Prudence – Glass Onion – Happiness Is A Warm Gun – Martha My Dear – I’m So Tired – Blackbird – Yer Blues – Sexy Sadie – Honey Pie – Savoy Truffle – Cry Baby Cry
Tracks I hate: Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da – Wild Honey Pie – Don’t Pass Me By
4) Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) – A masterpiece of the 1960s. The album feels overall connected with itself and the best songs are excellent pieces of psychedelic and decade defining music. One of the first self-proclaimed “conceptual albums”, and it does it a disservice, because if you keep looking for a concept you’re going to get lost. The true value of this album comes when you just enjoy the music. Sure it lacks Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane , which were from the same sessions, and it has some dudds around the middle, but with a track like A Day In The Life or Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds , everything is worth it. it is an excellent attempt, with great execution and noticeably a lot of work behind. A lot of attention to detail and innovation. 9/10
Tracks I love: Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band – With A Little Help From My Friends – Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds – She’s Leaving Home – Lovely Rita – A Day In The Life
Tracks I hate: Within You Without You
3) Revolver (1966) – An absolute masterpiece. Just mind-bending, with tons of variations in harmonies, melodies, instrumentation, experimentation. You got guitars, pianos, winds, Indian sounds, orchestration. I mean, they really stepped up the game like a hundred stories for this one. Harrison truly became a worthy songwriter at once with tracks like I Want To Tell You and Love You To . Paul rediscovered himself with songs like Eleanor Rigby , Here, There And Everywhere and For No One . and John as good as always with tracks like I’m Only Sleeping . Taxman is a fantastic opener, Tomorrow Never Knows is a fantastic closer. She Said She Said is one of the best, most underrated songs ever made, and Yellow Submarine is probably the most defining Ringo song, so even if it’s not as good as the other tracks on the album, it’s still really fun if you actually pay attention, and it has little details to notice and appreciate. Revolver is like watching gods playing: they’re having fun and you can’t help but be amazed. It doesn’t make it to the top for the lack of “album experience”, which is not required to be absolutely fantastic, but the tracklist is still filled with non-endings (fade outs) and not a very choesive structure or division between sides. Still, one of the greatest scrap of songs ever. 10/10
Tracks I love: Taxman – Eleanor Rigby – Here, There And Everywhere – She Said She Said – I Want To Tell You – Tomorrow Never Knows
Tracks I hate: none.
2) Magical Mystery Tour (1967) – It is curious how the leftovers of Sgt. Pepper where somehow a better demonstration of the Beatles’ psychedelic experimentation than Sgt. Pepper itself. Even the opener track is more psychedelic than Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Flying and Blue Jay Way are fantastically underrated Beatles’ songs and some stuff on it is some of the most freaky, striking material of the decade: either lyrically (I Am The Walrus ) or sonically (Strawberry Fields Forever ). It also includes classic catchy Beatles’ songs like All You Need Is Love and Penny Lane . And honestly The Fool On The Hill and Your Mother Should Know are excellent filler songs. The title of the album is a perfect depiction of the album itself, it’s a showcase of ideas, all painted in the same colourful tone of this druggy, raw sound. It variates between Paul’s charming side and John’s dark side. It’s absolutely perfect. 10/10
Tracks I love: Flying – Blue Jay Way – I Am The Walrus – Strawberry Fields Forever – Penny Lane – Baby, You’re a Rich Man
Tracks I hate: none.
1) Abbey Road (1969) – After sessions as spared and unfocused as were the White Album and Get Back /Let It Be sessions, it seemed almost impossible the Beatles could pull through with an album as perfectly produced and well-crafted as a Revolver or a Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band, but somehow they knew they couldn’t go out like any other band, they needed to go out with style, and Abbey Road was that. Few albums are as satisfyingly neat and entertaining. Every track serves a purpose, and it is definitely the best paced Beatles album. Tracks like Come Together and Here Comes The Sun have becomes classics, and not without reason. I Want You (She’s So Heavy) is a blues rock masterpiece, the Medley is a fantastic idea, executed perfectly, The End is a uniquely satisfying closer for the band’s discography as a whole. It is the only time John, Paul and George as songwriters felt to be at an equal level and even songs like Maxwell’s Silver Hammer or Octopus’s Garden feel interesting as to how playful and funny they are, not even mentioning how well recorded. There’s not a more rewarding listening experience in the Beatles’ discography at least for me. 10/10
Tracks I love: I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – Here Comes The Sun – Because – You Never Give Me Your Money – Sun King – Golden Slumbers – Carry That Weight – The End
Tracks I hate: none.
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Getbackintheussr, lovelyritametermaid, TangerineTreesthe watusi
the twist
6.33pm
28 April 2020
Offline I’ll give this a go! All the albums have their charms …
13. Yellow Submarine – Not really an album with only 4 new songs. However, the new songs are worth having, my favourite being ‘Hey Bulldog ‘. These songs should have been added onto ‘Past Masters ‘ or ‘Magical Mystery Tour ‘ though.
12. Please Please Me – a decent debut album full of charm. Not keen on songs like ‘Chains ‘, ‘Taste Of Honey’ and ‘Boys ‘, but like most of the rest. The highlights are ‘I Saw Her Standing There ‘, Please Please Me ‘ and ‘There Is A Place’. Some of the covers like ‘Anna’ and of course ‘Twist & Shout’ are wonderful.
11. Beatles For Sale – this is a patchy album. Some good originals like ‘No reply’ and I’m A Loser ‘ and a couple of good covers like ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Music’ and ‘Words Of Love ‘. However, there are too many weak songs like ‘Honey Don’t ‘, Kansas City ‘ and ‘Everybody’s Trying To Be My Baby ‘. Adding ‘I Feel Fine ‘ would have really strengthened this album.
10. With The Beatles – This is quite a strong album. There are one or two weaker original tracks like ‘Little Child ‘ and ‘Hold Me Tight ‘, but generally the standard is quite high. Highlights are ‘All My Loving ‘, ‘Don’t Bother Me ‘ and ‘Not A Second Time ‘. My favourite covers are ‘Please Mr. Postman’, ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me ‘ and ‘Devil In Her Heart ‘, which I really love! Just loves George’s voice as well as John & Paul’s backing vocals! The associated singles were ‘She Loves You ‘ and ‘I Want To Hold Your Hand ‘.
9. Magical Mystery Tour – This isn’t really an album either but a collection of singles alongside the MMT songs. I rarely play this album, but tend to cherry pick favourite songs in particular ‘Strawberry Fields Forever ‘ and ‘I’m The Walrus’ which are two of my favourite Beatle songs.
8. A Hard Day’s Night – It feels wrong having this album so low. There are many highlights including the title track, ‘And I Love Her ‘, ‘If I Fell ‘ and nearly all of Side 2!
7. Help ! – This and ‘A Hard Day’s Night ‘ are hard to split really, but this has ‘Ticket To Ride ‘ on it! Having the singles on ‘Help ‘ and ‘AHDN ‘ really help the standard of the album, something that ‘With The Beatles ‘ and ‘Beatles For Sale ‘ would benefit from.
6. Let It Be / Naked – I prefer ‘Naked’ as it includes ‘Don’t Let Me Down ‘ which really lifts John’s contribution and really improves the album. I also prefer how the ‘Naked’ album is set out, though I do miss the ‘I hope we passed the audition’ quote! I do enjoy the slightly rougher production on this album.
THE TOP 5 AND ALL IN THE TOP 20 (IF NOT THE TOP 5) ALBUMS EVER!
5. Abbey Road – Brilliant album culminating in the medley on Side 2. However, the best song on the album is ‘Here Comes The Sun ‘!
4. Rubber Soul – Just brilliant with maybe only a couple of weaker tracks like ‘What Goes On ‘. The associated single was ‘We Can Work It Out ‘ / ‘Day Tripper ‘ and if they had been added to the album, in place of a couple of the weaker tracks, Rubber Soul would have been perfect!
3. Sgt. Pepper ‘s Lonely Hearts Club Band – Brilliant from the warm up at start through to the climatic end of ‘A Day In The Life ‘! Maybe adding ‘Strawberry Fields Forever ‘ and ‘Penny Lane ‘ would have made it even better!
2. The Beatles – A brilliant, brilliant album! So many highlights and such a varied collection of songs!
1. Revolver – This album is perfect! A perfect rock / pop album covering a variety of genres. My favourite songs are ‘For No One ‘, She Said She Said ‘, Eleanor Rigby ‘ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows ‘. If ‘Paperback Writer ‘ and ‘Rain ‘ had been added to the album in place of, say, ‘Dr. Robert’ and ‘Got To Get You Into My Life ‘, then the album would have been ‘Perfect+’!
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Jules8.36pm
8 August 2019
Offline alittlebitolder said
6. Let It Be / Naked – I prefer ‘Naked’ as it includes ‘Don’t Let Me Down ‘ which really lifts John’s contribution and really improves the album. I also prefer how the ‘Naked’ album is set out, though I do miss the ‘I hope we passed the audition’ quote! I do enjoy the slightly rougher production on this album.
Don’t let meanmistermustard hear you
Also how dare you?
the watusi
the twist
1.43am
28 April 2020
Offline Jules said
Also how dare you?
In my opinion ‘Magical Mystery Tour ‘ is a decent collection of songs, ranging from some of their very very best … ‘Strawberry Fields Forever ‘, ‘I Am The Walrus ‘ and ‘Penny Lane ‘ to some of their worst … ‘Flying ‘ and ‘ Your Mother Should Know ‘.
Half of the album is a collection of songs, released as singles, just like ‘Past Masters ‘, ‘1’ or the ‘Red & Blue Albums’ and don’t really belong with the ‘MMT’ songs.
Of the ‘Magical Mystery Tour ‘ songs, only ‘I Am The Walrus ‘ and maybe ‘Fool On The Hill’ are Sgt. Pepper quality. ‘MMT’ is sort of ‘Sgt. Pepper ‘ lite.
The three best songs are what have kept it above ‘With The Beatles ‘ in my list.
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Jules, lovelyritametermaid
