1001 Albums Summary

This is a confusing album to rate. This album showcases The Beatles at their absolute best, serving more than a dozen undeniable all-time classics. The drawback is, that's not even half of the album. This thing has 30 songs spanning over 90 minutes, and mixed in among the aforementioned classics are some songs that are banal and forgettable, but also some songs that contend for the absolute worst in The Beatles' discography (see Wild Honey Pie, Sabor Truffle, and the perplexing 8-minute long Revolution 9). There's a universe where this album is half as long and contends for one of the all-time greats, but the severe bloat and lack of consistency within sadly knocks a couple points off of it.

This album is compact, fast-paced, and full of peppy love songs that are easy to sing along to. There isn't much to offer in the way of variety or depth, but it's also clear that this isn't the type of music that commands that sort of thing. It's good album to put on if you just wanna hum and bob your head for half an hour.

I wanted to like this album a lot more than I ultimately did. The lyrics are hard hitting, the musicianship is top notch, and there's really nothing quite like it. And yet... I just could NOT fully get into this album. Despite the unique sonic palette, there isn't much variance from song to song. The majority of these songs sound EXACTLY the same as the last one, which becomes a detriment due to many songs on this record overstaying their welcome. There were multiple times when I would mentally be ready for a song to wrap up, only for it to go on for another 2 or 3 minutes, usually by way of some kind of transition- this formula began to fall flat quickly. I fully support this album being on the list, and I could easily see myself jamming to any of these songs on a shuffled playlist, but as an album experience it's quite tedious.

High energy and infectious riffs. AC/DC only has two modes, though. One is "hey girl, let's hook up" and the other is "I am the man who loves to rock." It wears thin after awhile, but if you turn your brain off to the actual meat of the lyrical content it's easy to bang your head to.

This might be the most boring album I've ever listened to.