Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Beatles (The) > Reviews > Sgt. Pepper, forever living on

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Sublime
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Outstanding
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	production, experimentation and creativity
Disadvantages:	not a sitar fan

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was the eighth album released by The Beatles. It was released on 1st June 1967 and it’s 40th anniversary will soon be marked by a covers album recorded by various current recording artists.

The impact this album has had on music over the last 40 years cannot be overstated. Listening to it today it still sounds like it could have been released this year. The production techniques and quality are immense and cannot be matched. It’s closest rival of the time comes from The Beach Boys (or Brian Wilson’s….) Pet Sounds.

This record defines modern music, across all guitar-based genres. It is sheer art.

Over the years there has been much debate over what are considered drug references, but if you ask me that is irrelevant, it’s a ground-breaking piece of creativity and musical expression. Much of it has a psychedelic feel fitting of the era, but is creates such a vast landscape of sound and a massive dreamlike feel that is key to the album.

The ever controversial but brilliant ‘Lucy in the sky…’ is perhaps the best example of that. It’s describing a dream of a young Julian Lennon and it’s not only the lyrics but the composition and distant swirling vocals that aid that.

Ringo Starr has always taken a lot of flak for his drumming capabilities, but I think ‘Getting Better’ is representative of his abilities. His percussive work is solely based around what is required for the song or concept. Anything more intense would kill this song and the hi-hat work fits with the circus feel of the album as a concept.

This continues with ‘Fixing a hole’ where again the hi-hat work plays its part in creating the rhythm of the rain.

My least favourite song on the album is the sole writing credit George Harrison has on the album ‘Within You Without You’. Clearly inspired by his time in India as Sitar makes up the instrumentation. I rate this as my least favourite as I’ve never enjoyed the sound of the instrument although the creative intent of this track still rates highly.

I think what’s key about this album is the clear difference in vocal participation by John and Paul. Paul seems to take lead for all of the more ‘straight up’ songs and Johns’ involvement in these songs seems to serve to add to the psychedelic feel of the album as a whole. He muddies the clearer songs, adding depth.

Where John comes into his own is on the more outwardly psychedelic and experimental songs, such as the aforementioned ‘Lucy in the sky’ ‘Lovely Rita’ and the unforgettable ‘A Day in the life’.

The final track of the album is ‘A Day in the Life’ and my word what a song! Epic is the first word that springs to mind. Truly original also and totally unsurpassed by pretty much anything that has come in British music since (with Bohemian Rapsody being perhaps the only exception). I find it a hard song to describe, it is just the culmination of everything the band experiment with on the album. Swirling dream-like vocals, as well as bluesy-rock vocals for the latter half of the song. Big strings and orchestral sections, with the piano being key in both halves of the song.

An album truly fitting of it’s classic status, I’ve also added an out of five rating for each track below.

Track listing
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (4/5)
"With a Little Help from My Friends" (5/5)
"Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" (5/5)
"Getting Better" (4/5)
"Fixing a Hole"(4/5)
"She's Leaving Home" (5/5)
"Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!"(5/5)
"Within You Without You" (2/5)
"When I'm Sixty-Four"(4/5)
"Lovely Rita"(4/5)
"Good Morning Good Morning"(4/5)
"Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise)" (4/5)
"A Day in the Life" (5/5)

Dan Patmore
www.creationoverload.com