Revolver By The Beatles
The Beatles amazing 1966 album Revolver is considered by many music critics to not only be The Beatles greatest album ever but to also be the best rock album of all time by any band or artist. For some music fans that may be surprising as Beatles albums such as 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and 1969’s Abbey Road have sold more copies and are more well known among the general public.
Revolver represented another huge step forward for The Beatles artistically in a series of such huge steps. The Beatles went from the more straight forward pop of 1964 to the eclectic psychedelic rock of Revolver just two years later. 1965’s Rubber Soul was the stepping stone between the two.
So why is it that this album is considered to be so excellent? The answer is actually very simple: The songs. It doesn’t have the cohesiveness of Abbey Road’s second side or the “concept” of Sgt. Pepper but what it does have is a collection of absolutely stunningly great songs in an amazing array of different styles.
From the balladry of “Here, There, & Everywhere” to the acid rock of “She Said She Said” to the Indian sounds of “Love You To” to the childlike “Yellow Submarine” to the sublime “Eleanor Rigby” to the otherwordly “Tomorrow Never Knows” the album never stops surprising the listener with amazing songs. This amazing collection of tunes are not just great, they are extraordinary. These songs have inspired countless musicians and songwriters in the 40+ years since Revolver was first released.
I’ve read that every one of these songs created it’s own “sub genre” of popular music and while I do think that’s probably a bit of an exaggeration it is probably quite close to the truth.
With most less imaginative albums you can just listen to a song or two and know just what the whole thing sounds like. With this album every song is it’s own revelation. That’s partially because they had three extraordinary songwriters each contributing songs with their own unique styles (Lennon, McCartney, & Harrison) but that’s also because each of these great songwriters was not just content to just make the same style song over and over again. Each of them were adventerous and creative in their own way and when you combine the boundless creativity of three amazing songwriters you get something truly special like Revolver.