The Beatles

Revolver (1966)

1.Taxman
2.Eleanor Rigby
3.I'm Only Sleeping
4.Love You To
5.Here, There and Everywhere
6.Yellow Submarine
7.She Said She Said
8.Good Day Sunshine
9.And Your Bird Can Sing
10.For No One
11.Doctor Robert
12.I Want To Tell You
13.Got To Get You Into My Life
14.Tomorrow Never Knows

Proving that Rubber Soul was no fluke in its expanse into deeper realms of creativity, the band produced what was not only regarded as the Beatles' best work, but many claimed was the best rock and roll album ever. Does the album deserve such praise? Quite simply, yes. What makes this album so great is not simply that it's a collection of great songs, nor that it's extremely diverse (such as its predecessor), yet that the album is timeless. With only a few exceptions the album sounds as fresh many years later as it did over 40 years ago.

The opening track, George Harrison's Taxman sounds very similar to the majority of the songs on Rubber Soul with his unique electric guitar weaving throughout the whole piece - a protest of England's ridiculous tax system. With a few exceptions, all similarities end there. What follows is Paul McCartney's Eleanor Rigby that continues his flair for the softer, sadder more melodic work, this one accompanied only by harmonies and a beautifully orchestrated string section. At the time this was about as far from "normal" as the band could possibly get. John Lennon was entering his "weird" phase throughout the whole album which most people didn't consider a bad thing necessarily. His first song we hear, I'm Only Sleeping deals with his ongoing fatigue and laziness that success brought him and sounds, well, druggy. He pushes us further with She Said ("She Said, She Said / I know what it's like to be dead") and his closer Tomorrow Never Knows inspired by The Tibetan Book of the Dead is uniquely frightening, odd, strange and enjoyable. Ringo sings one of his most memorable contributions to the bands catalog, Yellow Submarine, that became sort of a classic children's song and the band would later make it into an animated full length film that would "feature" the band.

If the rest of the album had been filler, it still would have been a classic with all of the above mentioned tunes, yet the band keeps bombarding us with great songs throughout. Got To Get You Into My Life seems a bit inspired by American Soul music (it would later be coverd by Earth, Wind & Fire) and George Harrison's fascination with Ravi Shankar's Indian Sitar shows up in the hypnotic Love You To. McCartney puts on his best happy face with Good Day Sunshine and seems to contrast some of Lennon's gloom. He continues his brilliance on For No One that almost seems a sequal to Michelle from the last album. Harrison gives us a rare third penned track with I Want To Tell You that is his most straight forward song on the album that seems to almost get lost surrounded by all of the uniqueness.

Definitely a must for all fans of music, regardless of your tastes.