I'd say this is the best of their pre Rubber Soul material. It's still got plenty of duff tracks, but that's to be expected with early Beatles.

At least to me, this one's SHOCKINGLY underrated: it's still 1963 and yet the band has clearly settled into their role as the manufacturers of delicious pop nugget after delicious pop nugget stunningly quickly. Of course the music is pretty similar to "Please Please Me", but it's obvious the band's writing and playing abilities have risen significantly: not only that, but crucially the majority of the awkwardness that was so obvious on the debut has suddenly disappeared, meaning that now the Fabs sound genuinely confident in what they do (ignoring the mediocre and banal "Hold Me Tight"). While we still have a formula of six covers and eight originals, arguably the best of each 'set' beats the best of the previous record reasonably easily. On the covers side of things, "Money (That's What I Want)" is an absolutely blistering rock and roll tune that annihilates "Twist and Shout", with John's vocal being even more adept than it was there. As for triumphs in the originals department, while "All My Loving" is the best-remembered song and is certainly a cool little flamenco-inspired boogie, "It Won't Be Long" is arguably one of the very best early Beatles tracks, drenched in dark forboding and featuring electrifying amounts of pure energy. Apart from "Hold Me Tight", though, I don't think there's a bad track to be found anywhere and while it's still not an 'important' album (whatever that means), there's far worse ways you can spend your time than with the Beatles.

Track Pick: It Won't Be Long
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUmXXFbhokc)

It's decent for what it is

To me by far their worst album. Songwriting wasn't as sharp and covers weren't as good. Three good songs (It' Won't Be Long, All I've Got To Do, and All My Loving), but rest are just fillers and b-sides.

"All My Loving" is the nicest track, I think.
Also: Poor Ringo, relegated to the bottom corner...

I like the beatles but this is hard to like

Listening to this album, I can understand why they were a sensation back when. So very different than what else was out.

This is my least favourite Beatles album. There is hardly any really good song and a couple of very weak covers, especially "Please Mr. Postman"; what was John Lennon thinking, when he decided to sign that song?. "All I've Got To Do" and "All My Loving" are in my opinion the two best tracks, and also the good and enthusiastic vocal performance of Ringo in "I Wanna Be Your Man"

A little dip from their debut album. It seems like they tried to follow a formula so it wasn't quite as fresh. Still, a decent album by the Beatles still beats a lot of other albums.

A good second album free from sophomore jinx. Not as great as its predecessor but still has some fantastic tracks such as All My Loving and All I've Got To Do. They also perform great covers of Please Mister Postman and Devil In Her Heart.