Beatles, The (The White Album) - Beatles (The)

Advantages: Lots of brilliant stuff
Disadvantages: Some not-so-brilliant stuff, "Revolution 9"

...think you don't know the Beatles, you must have heard at least one of their songs on the radio. John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr made up the group that is quite possibly the best rock 'n' roll band ever. The Beatles had 27 number one hits and influenced just about every musician who came after them. Of course, the Beatles were not untouchable gods. It may be hard to believe, but they were actually human, and like other ...
...of The White Album, there was a lot of fighting between the members of the group, causing Ringo to pack up his drums and quit for a period. John had met Yoko Ono and insisted on bringing her into the studio, Paul was starting to take over the group, and George was becoming frustrated as his songs were ignored by Lennon and McCartney. The group was beginning to fall apart, and there are tracks on the album that feature only the lead singer. Harrison ... Read review

Advantages: Diversity, readiness to take chances and break new ground
Disadvantages: Self-indulgent in places, with a marked lack of quality control

When first released, 'The Beatles', generally known to posterity as the 'White Album' after its stark white packaging, seemed simply baffling. Apart from Bob Dylan's 'Blonde on Blonde', it was the first rock double album, and there was something pretty daunting about the sprawling collection of 30 tracks to digest at once. Numerous other acts have done the same since, but in 1968 it was not the norm. However, maybe that's one of the most fascinating ...
...recorded, more like a scrapbook in which they sandwiched the real goodies with a collection of shorter tracks which might be seen as demos or unfinished ideas by one or two members of the group (like McCartney's 53-seconds-long 'Wild Honey Pie'), and a few highly dispensable items which suggest that quality control was giving way to self-indulgence. Some three and a half decades later, its legendary status is assured. Diehard Beatles fans think it's ... Read review

Advantages: The best Beatles album
Disadvantages: Contains at least 2 stinkers.Usually costs £30

At least 50% of the population like The BEATLES. Maybe 25% of the population are very fond of them. The 25% that love The Beatles will buy up almost everything that ever gets released. I sadly fall into the 'slavish devotion' catagory and must have certain songs by the Beatles in at least 5 or 6 different formats (Records, Tapes, CD's and MP3). With this in mind I think I can say with a degree of knowledge that this is the Beatles most 'Must Have' ...
...their most polished or competant... Just that all-in-all it's the best. I originally had this on tape (missed out on vinyl but couldn't quite afford CD's). I bought it at the local market, took it home, stuck it in the alba, and, after a couple of hours listening completed reassessed my opinion of The Beatles. Years later a girl I was seeing at the time bought me the album on CD for Christmas. For this one small, quite insignificant gesture (in ... Read review

Advantages: Great songs
Disadvantages: Some naff tracks

To all intents and purposes, The Beatles’ last real album as a band was Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, and even then that album was more about George Martin and the studio working magic with a few hammy songs while the band members were spending their time growing facial hair and dressing up. Pepper had been the rock music event of 1967, but it had seen the band behind the music start to move apart. Thus when the revolutionary air of ...
...by the world’s biggest band, what actually happened was that three gifted individuals got together in the studio, accompanied by everybody’s favourite loser, Ringo Starr, with their collection of here’s one I prepared earlier stuffed under their arms and shared the experience with us. In such unpromising circumstances with John and Paul becoming more and more distant and estranged as Lennon’s real soul mate emerged in the shape of Yoko Ono, and George ... Read review

Advantages: There's never been, and never will be, anything like it. Some of the greatest rock ever.
Disadvantages: Possibly too long to listen to all at once, but still great all the way through.

When the “loveable moptops” released this album in 1968, they had become considerably less loveable in the public eye. Their interests in drugs, Indian mysticism and religion, along with the disastrous “Magical Mystery Tour” flick of 1967, had tarnished their reputation. And to top it all, they had grown huge beards! Certainly, no-one was expecting this sprawling masterpiece, which changed the direction of rock music, and ...
...band of all time – which they undoubtedly are. In this review, I’ve decided to take each side of the album and go through it in detail. So here goes… Opener “Back in the USSR” is a great attention grabber, and when it merges into “Dear Prudence”, it’s a double whammy of sheer class. Then comes “Glass Onion”. This Lennon mini-epic contains great lyrics which refer back to other Beatles ... Read review