Andrew_Hicks's Full Review: Revolver by The Beatles
Okay, those of you who are sick of my “This is good, but it’s not nearly as good as the sh$t the Beatles came out with after this,” comments will find solace in this review. Yeah, we’ve finally reached the era of full-on musical brilliance from the Beatles, and you’re now about to get sick of statements like, “I can’t believe how incredibly good this stuff is,” “These guys were brilliant” and “Can anyone ever remotely come close to approaching this level of songwriting, performance and production?” Why? Because this is Revolver, fool. This is one of the best rock albums ever made, and this – my friend – you bettah recognize!
George Harrison’s “Taxman” is an exquisite opener, with frantic electric guitar and a slightly distorted lead vocal, and it rivals Paul McCartney’s tunes for terminal catchiness. But McCartney rivals only himself with “Eleanor Rigby,” the album’s second song. Done in classical style with only a string section for accompaniment, it laments the lonely shut-aways of the world with an apt, crisp sense of human behavior (behaviour?).
And it gives way to John Lennon’s first contribution, the lazy, trippy-as-hell “I’m Only Sleeping.” This is one of my favorite Beatles tracks, a song that knows the lust we instinctively have for sloth and sleeping in general. The bass is lazy and prominent, the distorted vocal is intoxicating, and backmasked guitar seals the deal for some hypnotic, dreamy music.
We’re back to Harrison with “Love You To,” my least favorite song on the album. It begins promisingly enough, with some Indian tabla music, but soon becomes a loud, half-hearted mess – although I know some people who really enjoy this song, so it might just be a matter of personal taste. It’s a little too chaotic for me. Harrison’s third song, “I Want to Tell You,” is an improvement, a nice distraction but still ultimately an album track. His best stuff with the Beatles was yet to come.
McCartney rounds out the album with another top-shelf ballad, “Here, There and Everywhere,” in which the left-channel harmony-vocal track is just as beautiful as the string quartet earlier; the idealistic piano tune “Good Day Sunshine,” which has bouncy drums from Ringo Starr and a nice solo break; “For No One,” a downright beautiful track with sublime high-end trumpet accompaniment; and “Got to Get You Into My Life,” a horn-heavy Vegas-style number with a clean, double-tracked lead vocal and near-screaming during the chorus.
And Ringo? Well, obviously, Ringo didn’t write any of these songs or have any helpful production contributions. He is, after all, the single luckiest man alive. But Revolver wouldn’t be Revolver without Ringo’s vocals on the Beatles cliché “Yellow Submarine,” a well-produced kiddie yarn with more sound effects than the entire Beatles catalogue to this point.
As the album wears on, Lennon contributes “She Said, She Said,” one of his more lyrically superior pop songs; the quick but furiously catchy rocker, “And Your Bird Can Sing” (another personal favorite); “Doctor Robert,” an uptempo track about John’s favorite drug dealer (“If you’re down, he’ll pick you up / Take a drink from his special cup”); and “Tomorrow Never Knows.”
If you’ve never heard that last track, you can’t imagine what you’re in for – Lennon has basically tried to string together, through a manic drum beat, trippy vocal, weaved and distorted sound effects and a backmasked guitar solo, a sonic representation of an acid trip in all its frightening, euphoric glory. Some may consider it an aberration or a mere distraction from the Beatles’ better songs, but I think it’s one of Lennon’s greatest experimental achievements – a wonderful song filtered through a production lens no sane person could have possibly been expecting. I’ll take “Tomorrow” over “Revolution #9” and even “I Am the Walrus” any day.
You’ll likely feel spent after “Tomorrow Never Dies,” which is the perfect capper to an album filled with various, sophisticated sonic influences. Not to mention all-around wonderful, classic songs. Revolver is only my third-favorite Beatles album, but it’s definitely one of the 20 most-essential CDs in my collection. I’ve known this album intimately for six years or so, and it still holds surprises as I get older and can appreciate it more on a musical level. I can only imagine having had it in my collection for going-on 35 years.
Arguably the first psychedelic rock album, Revolver was praised for its musical experimentation--the Indian sounds of Love You To, the Motown-inspired...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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