Andrew_Hicks's Full Review: A Hard Day's Night by The Beatles
Please Please Me and With the Beatles each have their strong points, but I consider A Hard Day’s Night the first truly classic five-star album. That it also has far better original songs, far fewer cover songs and is a soundtrack to a very cool movie doesn’t hurt. From beginning to end, this is a wonderful album, full of two-minute doses of fast-hitting pop brilliance.
The opening chord of the title song creates anticipation and then slams you with the chorus and musical accompaniment, which is based around an almost chaotic bed of high-hat cymbals from Ringo Starr. I love everything about it, from the quick guitar solo to the juxtaposition of the verses from John Lennon and bridge from Paul McCartney.
“I Should Have Known Better” is another favorite, inexplicably left off the 1962-1966 “red-disc” Beatles compilation. The double-tracked lead vocals from John aren’t of the highest quality (is it me or does he just kind of fall in and out of key here?) but the energetic harmonica and sing-along qualities more than make up for it.
You’d never know from the simplistic lead-in to “If I Fell” how truly beautiful the choruses are. The vocal harmonies are perfect here and in “And I Love Her,” which is probably my favorite song from A Hard Day’s Night. It’s a ballad based around a slightly Spanish-sounding acoustic guitar riff and light bongos, with mesmerizing lead acoustic guitar during the verses (which is still unmatched by the solo) and surprisingly sap-free lyrics and vocals.
The Beatles have already progressed light years in three short albums, but there’s still some sock-hop material on A Hard Day’s Night. “Tell Me Why” is almost painfully simplistic at times, with a sing-along frathouse chorus and a hasty musical arrangement, “When I Get Home” is slap-happy and haphazard and, although the music itself is pretty sophisticated, the title of “I’m Happy Just to Dance With You” says it all.
The energy works best when married to strong songwriting, as in “Can’t Buy Me Love,” which stops and starts on a dime and terminally rocks even after 36 years. “Things We Said Today” is built around a fierce acoustic guitar riff but hides behind almost gentle lead vocals from Paul. And the purely harmonic structure and chord progression of “I’ll Be Back” has been ripped off on at least two occasions, for good reason.
We’re still not into what I consider the truly worthwhile stuff from The Beatles, but we’re getting there with each successive album. The music gets better and better as it goes, and even if the band had crested with an album like A Hard Day’s Night, it would have had its undeniable place in rock music history. This is good stuff – short-attention span rock with broad hooks and nice guitar work – and is definitely worth having in your collection.
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