Best Ever Albums

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

denmarkman — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 13:56:02 GMT

Author: denmarkman

Posted: 03/19/2016 17:56

Gowi wrote:

denmarkman in 2013 wrote:

It is all subjective, of course. I disagree completely about the pacing. There is virtually no variation in song length (the songs range from 2:05-3:20; this is also one of the biggest problems with Revolver, which features songs ranging from 2:00-3:00), which to me creates a feeling of repetitive and predictable pacing.

As for the songwriting, once again, all subjective, but I can't seem to grasp what is so high-quality about the songwriting here. Every now and then a nice riff or melody will surface, but nothing more. The verse of "Drive My Car" consists of a single note (or pair of notes, rather) until the line leading into the chorus (which itself could be described in a similar fashion), "The Word" and "What Goes On" are so repetitive I literally get a headache listening to them, etc. Also, as much as I enjoy the melody of "Michelle", the gratuitous French is plain obnoxious. There is also the shameless recycling of verses, though it is much less cumbersome here than on Revolver.

The album's biggest fault for me, however, is the aforementioned redundant feeling it instills. There is a decent amount of variation in style, tone, etc., but just about every song "feels" the same, if that makes sense. Following similar (I hesitate to say near-identical because it's been a while since I listened to the album intently) structure and lasting virtually the exact same length, every song here looks the same on paper.

Also, "Run for Your Life" is not only musically uninteresting, but incredibly misogynistic (and, as John himself once put it, semi-autobiographical), which destroys pretty much any appreciation I would have otherwise had for the album.

So what changed?

That was swedenman who said that.

Lol. Seriously, though, my musical tastes have just matured a lot, I think. I'm not irked by really minor things as much anymore. Repetition in particular doesn't really bother me anymore. Also I don't really feel like "Run for Your Life" is as misogynistic as I thought it was, as the intention seems to be that it's narrated by a fictitious psychopath as opposed to by Lennon himself.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

mickilennial — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 12:58:30 GMT

Author: mickilennial

Posted: 03/19/2016 16:58

denmarkman wrote:

Funny this should pop up now, I've been digging on this quite a bit lately. I used to hate this album with a fiery passion but it's really grown on me.

denmarkman in 2013 wrote:

So what changed?

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

denmarkman — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 12:21:37 GMT

Author: denmarkman

Posted: 03/19/2016 16:21

Funny this should pop up now, I've been digging on this quite a bit lately. I used to hate this album with a fiery passion but it's really grown on me.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

bestdressed — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 02:07:20 GMT

Author: bestdressed

Posted: 03/19/2016 06:07

It's a good album but very overrated.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 18:44:21 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/17/2016 22:44

Applerill wrote:

it inhabits this awkward well-balanced (and ultimately superior to both more extreme modes) halfway-point between the early and late Beatles

FTFY

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

Applerill — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 18:31:37 GMT

Author: Applerill

Posted: 03/17/2016 22:31

Norman Bates wrote:

Don't forget the BOOM BOOM potential.

😜

"Drive My Car" isn't bad, and neither is "Michelle". I just don't feel the rest of this stuff, though. I really do think it inhabits this awkward halfway-point between the early and late Beatles, and I never cared for that aesthetic.

(And to be fair, I'm not too big on this era of "NME pop" . Most of even the acclaimed Beach Boys albums are a drag to me, and even Pet Sounds is only a 4/5 because of filler).

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

Norman Bates — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 16:57:27 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 03/17/2016 20:57

Mercury wrote:

The question is has he heard it in full? Or was it so BORRRRINGGG (based off the album cover art, or the opening twangy guitar riff of "Drive My Car") that he stopped playing it and started stream of consciousness reviewing the psychological aspects of the RYM reviews of it?

Don't forget the BOOM BOOM potential.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

TracyJacks — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 16:47:07 GMT

Author: TracyJacks

Posted: 03/17/2016 20:47

benpaco wrote:

The single greatest album ever made. I think this is actually the closest I've heard to a perfect album, and there's really only 2 flaws that come to mind at all - any number of songs would've been a more fitting closing track than "Run For Your Life", and "The Word" has a couple moments where it feels like the harmony is just a little bit late behind the lead track. I know there's other things, editing issues and voices getting caught in fade outs (there's a great site that tracks all the issues on Beatles albums that have been found to date) but honestly those are the only things that have ever bothered me at all. And In My Life is the single greatest song that has or will ever exist and is one of the only things I will ever call utterly perfect.

I'm a musically ignorant 15 year old

Though I wouldn't consider it to be the single greatest album ever made, I love this album and I think it is one of the best of the decade. I share similar opinions on Run For Your Life and The Word, though I really start to like the latter a lot more than I used to.

Anyway, The Beatles took a huge step forward with this album, it is just so much better than what they did before ( the only which comes close is Hard Day's Night. But Help and the others are just <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< Rubber Soul)

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 15:37:22 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/17/2016 19:37

Probably my third? favourite Beatles record. Just really charming songs here, a very comforting listen. Norwegian Woods and In My Life are, as others have stated, just gorgeous songs melodically, perhaps Lennon's best. The album gets pretty goofy at times, but that kinda adds to its appeal for me.

Very nostalgic. Reminds me of when I was a musically ignorant 15 year old, and when I didn't care about what people thought of my music opinions on the internet.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

Mercury — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 14:57:33 GMT

Author: Mercury

Posted: 03/17/2016 18:57

Norman Bates wrote:

It's very good and don't listen to Applerill, who's showing off again.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

Norman Bates — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 14:45:39 GMT

Author: Norman Bates

Posted: 03/17/2016 18:45

It's very good and don't listen to Applerill, who's showing off again.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

benpaco — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 12:04:01 GMT

Author: benpaco

Posted: 03/17/2016 16:04

baystateoftheart wrote:

This might be my favorite Beatles album without the final track, but it detracts from the album in a major way. John Lennon's "least favourite Beatles song" and I'm inclined to agree.

Honestly I think as a b-side or just random track in the middle of an album, it's alright, it's just a rather anticlimactic ending

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

baystateoftheart — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 11:43:23 GMT

Author: baystateoftheart

Posted: 03/17/2016 15:43

This might be my favorite Beatles album without the final track, but it detracts from the album in a major way. John Lennon's "least favourite Beatles song" and I'm inclined to agree.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

Anonymous — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 01:12:53 GMT

Author: Anonymous

Posted: 03/17/2016 05:12

sure, my favorite thing about Rubber Soul is that it gave us Pet Sounds, but it's about as lovely as the boys got

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

nachosbob — Thu, 17 Mar 2016 01:04:45 GMT

Author: nachosbob

Posted: 03/17/2016 05:04

For some reason I used to think "What goes on" was a crappy track. Previous me was quite dumb... Anyways this album is pretty much perfect. Over time my love for each Beatles record has diminished with the exception of this

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

RoundTheBend — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 23:27:01 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/17/2016 03:27

jbray wrote:

Shout out to Paul's bass, what a treat.

My current earworms on this record are "The Word" and "You Won't See Me". Paul literally knocked that out in a night to have enough tracks within the time frame and Anne Murray rode as a career hit.

Hmm... didn't know that. Thanks!

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

RoundTheBend — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 23:25:33 GMT

Author: RoundTheBend

Posted: 03/17/2016 03:25

In My Life is one of the greatest songs ever written in my opinion. Such a bittersweet song.

As mentioned earlier it isn't their pop music, but it quite isn't Revolver grade music yet, but overall a great record. Number of other great tracks including Norwegian Wood, Nowhere Man, The Word, Michelle and Girl.

I remember reading the Anthology it is called such because Motown America thought they didn't have soul... they sounded a bit rubbery to their taste or something like this, so the Beatles thought it would be funny to own up to that and call their record Rubber Soul.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

AAL2014 — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 21:25:22 GMT

Author: AAL2014

Posted: 03/17/2016 01:25

A good precursor to Revolver. I've never liked it as much as Revolver though. Or Abbey Road for that matter because I don't like Girl or Michelle all that much. There are some really brilliant moments on here aside from that though. Norwegian Wood is a masterpiece.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

jbray — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 20:33:20 GMT

Author: jbray

Posted: 03/17/2016 00:33

Shout out to Paul's bass, what a treat.

My current earworms on this record are "The Word" and "You Won't See Me". Paul literally knocked that out in a night to have enough tracks within the time frame and Anne Murray rode as a career hit.

Re: Album of the day (#1934): Rubber Soul by The Beatles

boyd94 — Wed, 16 Mar 2016 18:34:56 GMT

Author: boyd94

Posted: 03/16/2016 22:34

Second favourite Beatles album. Really like every song.