Revolver is the album where The Beatles got interesting. Rubber Soul, their proceeding album, was the breakthrough in terms of creating a whole album worth listening too. Here, The Beatle got experimental. Many critics have called this the best album of all time. I used to feel that way too, though it’s still near the top for me. What makes this record so interesting is the varied styles they recorded here. From pure pop, to early psychedelic, classical, and experimental, Revolver has it all. If there is one complaint here, it’s that the songs are so varied; the album is not as cohesive as other great Beatles albums.

Revolver opens with a George Harrison gem, Taxman, a great guitar song which lays out the problems The Beatles were having being in such a large tax bracket at the time. From there we go into Eleanor Rigby, a beautifully written song with a fantastic string section to accentuate its emotional tones. I always felt Eleanor Rigby was Paul’s best-written work. The line “All the lonely people, where do they all come from. All the lonely people, where do they all belong� always gives me pause for thought, even after hearing this song hundreds of times.

As the album moves from style to style, we come to The Beatle’s first great children song, Yellow Submarine. It’s very easy to target and make fun of this corny tune written for Ringo, but it really is a great children song (All together now from the Yellow Submarine album is another great children song The Beatles wrote). Of course, this is the song that inspired the animated Beatles film, Yellow Submarine (Ahhhhhh, Blue Meanies!).

She Said She Said is one of two great Lennon works on Revolver. The song is a very dark and deep meditation on life and death (“I know what it’s like to be dead………and it’s making me feel like I’ve never been born�). It’s really a mesh of styles when The Beatles go from this song into Good Day Sunshine, a poppy and upbeat number celebrating the joys of being alive.

As the album comes towards it’s close, Got to Get you into My Life really perks things up. A very underrated Beatles song, the song mixes horns with McCartney’s great rock vocals. But again The Beatles go into a completely different direction and close out with the other great Lennon tune on Revolver, Tomorrow Never Knows. “Turn off your mind, relax, and float down stream….� launches The Beatles right into their psychedelic period. Some great studio work on this song, with Ringo’s drum playing put on a tape loop and played backwards. Lennon had some gems before this, but I always felt this is where he started to explode creatively.

Revolver will always be a very enjoyable listen and is a landmark album in the history of rock music. Next to The White Album, it’s a great showcase of the many varied styles of The Beatles.

Grade: A

Good review! 'Tomorrow Never Knows' makes this album for me. My favourite Beatle album though: Abbey Road.

Abbey Road is my favorite too.

You know man, if you're gtoing to do albums from the past you can't just do the one you like... doesn't make it interesting at all if there's no criticism in a review.

Good point. However, it's hard to dig up an album from the past I don't like that I will want to review. And really, who cares? This is a music forum, and I'm just trying to contribute a little. G-d knows we need it around here, especially in this section.

I was just making a point. Out of your two you did so far, I just didn't want you get stale and just pick out albums from your collection we all know are good and give them the obvious good review. I know this would've been said eventually, I just wanted to get it said early so your review could be stellar.

To be honest, I'm onlly going to review decent albums from the past. However, they will not all be grade A albums.