The New Critical Underground Guide to The Beatles
- Please Please Me (1963): **** 1/2
- With the Beatles (1963): **** 1/2
- A Hard Day's Night (1964): ****
- Beatles for Sale (1964): ****
- 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): ****
- In the Beginning: The Early Tapes (1970): **
- 1962 - 1966 (1973): *****
- 1967 - 1970 (1973): *****
- Past Masters, Vol. 1 (1988): *** 1/2
- Past Masters, Vol. 2 (1988): ****
- Anthology 1 (1995): *** 1/2
- Anthology 2 (1996): ****
- Anthology 3 (1996): ****
- Yellow Submarine [Songtrack] (1999): *** 1/2
- The Beatles One (2000): *****
As decided by the New Critical Underground...
Our rating system:
***** - A masterpiece; these are rare.
**** 1/2 - An excellent work of art, good enough that even people who usually hate the genre or main artists involved will still probably enjoy it.
**** - A very good work; people who hate the genre / artists involved may not care for it, but almost anyone else will.
*** 1/2 - A fairly good work, but will probably only be embraced by fans of the genre / artist.
*** - A barely good work; only diehard fans need apply.
** 1/2 - An average work; probably won't excite even diehard fans.
** - A below average piece of art; non-fans will hate this work.
* 1/2 - A bad work that few people are likely to enjoy and many are likely to hate.
* - A truly awful work; nearly everybody will hate this.
1/2 - One of the worst works of art ever; like the 5 stars, these are also rare.
I know I got here a little late, but I'm just curious what prevented "A Hard Day's Night" from a five-star rating. Maybe it doesn't seem like much of a difference (4 vs. 5), and I suppose it isn't, but I respect your opinion, so I'm wondering how the NCU arrived at this conclusion.
Well, it has been awhile, but if I recall correctly, A Hard Day's Night had its fans and its detractors. While it received many perfect votes, more than one person gave it a less than glowing rating, which pulled its overall average down from the 5 star mark.
In general, it seemed folks either seemed to favor the first two albums, at Hard Day's Night's expense, or (as most did) they thought A Hard Day's Night was the culmination of the first two albums. Perhaps a youthful energy vs. mature sound thing? Maybe Hard Day's supporters valued the complete slate of original songs? I'm not sure, but certainly there seemed to be two types of fans of early Beatles - those who dug Please Please Me and With, and those who dug A Hard Day's, who were in the majority.
Well, that's not really fair. There were fans who dug both!
Does that help?
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
Whoops, sorry. I meant to note that fans of the first two albums were in the majority. Sorry.
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs