The Guide to The Beatles (2008 update)
Submitted by lbangs on Wed, 05/18/2005 - 11:29
Tags:
- Please Please Me (1963) - ****
- With the Beatles (1963) - ****
- A Hard Day's Night (1964) - *****
- Beatles for Sale (1964) - *** 1/2
- Help! (1965) - **** 1/2
- Rubber Soul (1965) - *****
- Revolver (1966) - *****
- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967) - *****
- Magical Mystery Tour (1967) - *** 1/2
- The Beatles [White Album] (1968) - *****
- Yellow Submarine (1969) - **
- Abbey Road (1969) - *****
- Let It Be (1970) - ** 1/2
- 1962-1966 (1973) - **** 1/2
- 1967-1970 (1973) - *****
- Past Masters, Vol. 1 (1988) - **** 1/2
- Past Masters, Vol. 2 (1988) - *****
- Live at the BBC (1994) - *** 1/2
- Anthology 1 (1995) - ***
- Anthology 2 (1996) - *** 1/2
- Anthology 3 (1996) - ***
- Yellow Submarine [Songtrack] (1999) - ***
- In the Beginning (2000) - * 1/2
- The Beatles 1 (2000) - **** 1/2
- Let It Be... Naked (2003) - *** 1/2
- The Capitol Albums, Vol. 1 (2004) - *** 1/2
- The Capitol Albums, Vol. 2 (2006) - **** 1/2
Author Comments:
This appears just like my CC series, but there is one crucial distinction. This list is the combined opinions of me and the critics in the critical consensus series. My vote counted for one point just like the vote of each critic.
Essentially, this is simply an update of the CC series with my little voice tossed in as a drop in the critical pool.
Scale:
***** - Masterpiece
**** 1/2 - Classic
**** - Great
*** 1/2 - Good
*** - Above Average
** 1/2 - Average
** - Below Average
* 1/2 - Bad
* - Terrible
1/2 - One of the worst albums ever
Beatles For Sale is the most underrated Beatles album. It's better than it seems to be. It's obviously better than Please Please Me and With The Beatles. A Hard Day's Night is ok, but i do not think it deserves the same rating as Revolver or Abbey Road...a ****1/2 would have been better. But the worst thing I see is about Magical Mystery Tour, that's a flawless album full or masterpieces such as I Am The Walrus, Strawberry Fields Forever, All You Need Is Love, Penny Lane etc. That's a 5* album, even better than Sgt. Pepper's. Also Let It Be deserved at least 4*. The rest I agree with.
For my money, I think With the Beatles may be the most unjustly ignored Beatles album.
Beatles for Sale has some killer tunes, but it also has some pretty bad ones. I'd hate to live without I'm a Loser, but I never have to hear Mr. Moonlight again for the rest of my days...
I really don't like Let It Be, so I can't defend it. Nowadays, I never spin it. Maybe the album could be salvaged, but the Naked release from a few years back didn't do the trick for me. That production...
Magical Mystery Tour is an odd bird, and I suspect it usually gets lower ratings from critics due to its current status as a cobbled-together album made up of superior EPs. I don't think many people would argue with the songs you list.
I'm curious - What is your least favorite album by the band, and how many stars would you give it?
Thanks for the comments!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs