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Post by meddle on Dec 17, 2016 3:09:12 GMT 10
We'll discuss all the UK Beatle Albums in chronoloogical order
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2016 3:16:50 GMT 10
Good idea. I guess that means starting with Please Please Me. Far from the greatest album ever made but I still think for 1963 it's insanely impressive. I'll elaborate later.
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Post by meddle on Dec 17, 2016 3:18:42 GMT 10
Let's discuss Please please me
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2016 3:22:54 GMT 10
Guess I was a little early to the party ha ha. Will put the album on right now and give a balanced opinion.
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Post by meddle on Dec 17, 2016 3:25:02 GMT 10
Let's discuss Please please me Guess I was a little early to the party ha ha. Will put the album on right now and give a balanced opinion. i didn't see your post till after i posted lol
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2016 3:51:50 GMT 10
Rock and roll of the 50s and early 60s generally didn't have great albums. There were exceptions though but even those exceptions were merely just collections of songs, no artistic statements out of them. While Plesse Please Me is just a collection of songs, it's a great collection and a groundbreaking one. Ringo changed the game entirely for drummers (something rarely acknowledged) and the band the other members were even more talented (though not yet on their instruments). Their work as a band was heavier than anything that came before, more vulnerable than anything that came before, more personality-driven than anything that came before, and brought rock and roll back into popular fashion. The album opens perfectly with "I Saw Her Standing There". I heard Paul ripped the bass line note for note from another song, not sure why though and while plagiarism is artistically wrong I can't get around how great this song is. Paul showcases what a great raucous rock and roll singer he is, something rarely mentioned with his music, Ringo's rolls (if you can call them that, Martin said he couldn't do a roll to save his life and it's a fair argument) are simple but machine-gun like in their precise energy, and the George has an elegantly memorable solo. It's a fantastic dance number that I refuse to understand why one couldn't enjoy. Be all high brow about it if you want but boy is that just fun music. It slows things down with the second track "Misery" which George Martin would record piano fills for in post-production and that really adds a sense of dynamics that only Ringo understood at this point. It's a very vulnerable song that still manages to put a smile on my face. I have a soft spot for the next two songs on the album, both covers, which are well sung but not too original, however the fifth song/third cover tires the formula a bit.
"Boys" is literally an excuse for Ringo (the most naive member of the band in the popular image and perhaps a bit of a whipping boy for the rest of the group) to sing homoerotic lyrics originally sung by a girl group in a heterosexual way. Given homosexuality was illegal until the 60s (and may have been still illegal in '63, will have to factcheck) it was still constantly parodied. I find that sense of humour a bit immature and unfair to gay people but it's still a nice change of pace to hear Ringo's likeable voice and call-and-response style drum fills. Tell Me Why brings the album back to the originals and while far from a mature statement of young love, it's an endearing or 'cute' one. The lyrics sum up the overall emotion very well. But the album hits its highest peak since the opening with "Please Please Me" with extremely hummable drum parts, subtly double innuendo laden lyrics, a very catchy harmonica riff, and a brilliant guitar line that I can't explain the energy behind. Love Me Do on the other hand is a bit weak as far as songwriting goes but it's memorable and the harmonica makes it enjoyable, as does the unusual Cha Cha rhythm and the bar mitzvah dance evoking drum beat. It all adds to the unique appeal only the Beatles could bring. P.S I Love You is a pleasant throwback to traditional pop, Baby It's You is stunningly gorgeous, Do You Want to Know A Secret dies a good job at turning a smarmy even potentially disturbing subject matter into something charming, and There's A Place is the most universally relatable song on the album with a poignant simplicity and a lot of heart. However it's Twist and Shout that steals the show, out of the entire album even. It's been talked about to death and for good reason. It's just ridiculously entertaining. A pretty strong album.
Edit: I forgot about the bland, lifeless "A Taste of Honey".
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Post by meddle on Dec 17, 2016 7:00:13 GMT 10
I enjoy this album. For the most part it's a solid rock and roll album
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Post by meddle on Dec 17, 2016 7:09:40 GMT 10
@blusey scrubb what do you say?
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Post by BluesyThug on Dec 17, 2016 9:58:49 GMT 10
For my money Please Please Me is the strongest early Beatles album (A Hard Day's Night being a worthy runner-up) - though it is by no means perfect or anything. I couldn't match Kelan's intricate analysis of the album, so I'm not even going to try haha. Twist And Shout is probably the greatest cover the band did, alongside Rock And Roll Music IMO.
Personally though, I'd probably wait until forum membership rises before starting threads like these
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Post by Deleted on Dec 17, 2016 13:13:08 GMT 10
For my money Please Please Me is the strongest early Beatles album (A Hard Day's Night being a worthy runner-up) - though it is by no means perfect or anything. I couldn't match Kelan's intricate analysis of the album, so I'm not even going to try haha. Twist And Shout is probably the greatest cover the band did, alongside Rock And Roll Music IMO. Personally though, I'd probably wait until forum membership rises before starting threads like these A Hard Day's Night is Amore impressive album IMO, but I'd say that Please Please Me is a bit more consistent.
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Post by BluesyThug on Dec 17, 2016 14:14:21 GMT 10
For my money Please Please Me is the strongest early Beatles album (A Hard Day's Night being a worthy runner-up) - though it is by no means perfect or anything. I couldn't match Kelan's intricate analysis of the album, so I'm not even going to try haha. Twist And Shout is probably the greatest cover the band did, alongside Rock And Roll Music IMO. Personally though, I'd probably wait until forum membership rises before starting threads like these A Hard Day's Night is Amore impressive album IMO, but I'd say that Please Please Me is a bit more consistent. To an extent I can agree to that
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Post by meddle on Dec 17, 2016 14:43:12 GMT 10
For my money Please Please Me is the strongest early Beatles album (A Hard Day's Night being a worthy runner-up) - though it is by no means perfect or anything. I couldn't match Kelan's intricate analysis of the album, so I'm not even going to try haha. Twist And Shout is probably the greatest cover the band did, alongside Rock And Roll Music IMO. Personally though, I'd probably wait until forum membership rises before starting threads like these A hard day's night is my favorite early Beatles album
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Post by BluesyThug on Dec 17, 2016 15:24:30 GMT 10
For my money Please Please Me is the strongest early Beatles album (A Hard Day's Night being a worthy runner-up) - though it is by no means perfect or anything. I couldn't match Kelan's intricate analysis of the album, so I'm not even going to try haha. Twist And Shout is probably the greatest cover the band did, alongside Rock And Roll Music IMO. Personally though, I'd probably wait until forum membership rises before starting threads like these A hard day's night is my favorite early Beatles album Interesting. For me the rockers bring down the album honestly.... not some of the best rockers The Beatles did
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Post by meddle on Dec 19, 2016 23:19:39 GMT 10
@professor Fellatio what are your thoughts about the album please please me?
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Post by meddle on Jun 29, 2017 22:27:12 GMT 10
Should we move on to With the Beatles?
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Post by Deleted on Jun 29, 2017 22:32:26 GMT 10
Should we move on to With the Beatles? Why not?
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Post by meddle on Jun 30, 2017 0:50:36 GMT 10
Let's discuss with The Beatles
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2017 14:27:14 GMT 10
Mediocre album that shows the band maturing as songwriters but writing much less memorable songs. It's got some great moments though but it's one of their weaker offerings for me.
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Post by BluesyThug on Jul 13, 2017 16:17:57 GMT 10
Mediocre album that shows the band maturing as songwriters but writing much less memorable songs. It's got some great moments though but it's one of their weaker offerings for me. I disagree with that point - in fact I probably prefer it over Please Please Me now, for the high moments of WTB arguably surpass those on PPM. Plus with few exceptions I find that it's fairly consistent as an album quality-wise
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Post by Deleted on Jul 14, 2017 6:32:49 GMT 10
Mediocre album that shows the band maturing as songwriters but writing much less memorable songs. It's got some great moments though but it's one of their weaker offerings for me. I disagree with that point - in fact I probably prefer it over Please Please Me now, for the high moments of WTB arguably surpass those on PPM. Plus with few exceptions I find that it's fairly consistent as an album quality-wise I just generally don't like the covers which ruin an otherwise good offering.
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Post by meddle on Jul 15, 2017 10:56:56 GMT 10
I prefer it to please please me as well
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Post by Deleted on Jul 15, 2017 18:09:52 GMT 10
I guess it largely comes down to preference as even the worst Beatles material has it's fans. They tend to have the mark of quality and professionalism on them. Even when they were writing very simplistic almost amateurish songs on Please Please Me, they had studied songwriters books so extensively and listened to much great music that they knew how to write dynamic pop songs whilst innovating. With The Beatles is a lot more maturely written but with that said I also find it to be less memorable. "It Won't Be Long" is a good song and all, I chuck it on occasionally and quite enjoy it but can you really compare it to "I Saw Her Standing There" which is one of the most famous pop songs ever and deservingly so. I know catchy isn't necessarily good but it's like the Pepper VS Revolver debate. Pepper is mostly a more interesting and innovative album when it comes to recording style, production techniques and creation of soundscapes. And I am more into sound than song. HOWEVER it is so focused on sounds that in some cases that's all there is and there's not quite enough to redeem such mediocre examples of songwriting. It's still a good album IMO and of course very important in it's day though it hasn't aged well. Revolver on the other hand has mostly great pop songs, some of the best The Beatles ever recorded however they all are covered in this astonishingly unique and groundbreaking style and production that approaches Pepper very closely, sometimes equals it, and on one occasion surpasses it. It's got the balance perfect. I feel the same way about the first two albums. With The Beatles has better, more mature songwriting that shows the band developing but does it have "Do You Want to Have A Secret". No instead it has "Don't Bother Me" which is a good song but is it gonna be sung by casual Beatles fan for the rest of eternity. Also the covers are worse.
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Post by meddle on Jul 17, 2017 10:30:20 GMT 10
I like With the Beatles on a song by song basis better than Please Please Me
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Post by Deleted on Jul 17, 2017 17:50:41 GMT 10
I like With the Beatles on a song by song basis better than Please Please Me I will never understand that honestly. The covers are just so hit or miss.
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Post by meddle on Jul 18, 2017 0:10:19 GMT 10
Ready for A hard Day's night?
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Post by Deleted on Jul 18, 2017 18:00:52 GMT 10
Ready for A hard Day's night? I suppose so
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Post by Deleted on Aug 4, 2017 5:57:45 GMT 10
Given that Meddle hasn't given the go ahead I will voice my voice anyways. All in all I think that A Hard Day's Night is good. That said I find that in hindsight this album has it's flaws, with the second half spotting a number of songs more concerned with being vaguely catchy and upbeat than making actually energetic and charismatic music that engages the listener and puts a smile on their face. And that's not that the songs are bad it's just that when they're placed next to such astounding achievements they kind of fall short. "Tell Me Why" and "Any Time At All" repeat themselves far too much for instance, and "You Can't Do That" fails to live up to the menace of The Rolling Stones due to a disconnect her between the aggressive lyrics and the very Beatlesque music. I can't even remember what "When I Get Home" looks like looking at the track listing now, but to be fair it's been a while since i've played the album so maybe I should give it a fair go. Basically the album being the first by the band entirely of original compositions does miss the beat on a few songs and the sequencing doesn't balance the good to bad ratio too well in the second half though of course the band would like to think everything they did was good so the sequencing just was made for how well the songs flowed. I think Please Please Me is sequenced better though. With all the negatives aside, the best stuff on A Hard Day's Night is some of the band's best yet and while the sequencing isn't perfect, four weak songs on an album of 13 original songs by the hardest-touring band on the planet is hard to criticise, and they're not even necessarily weak songs, just weak Beatles songs, in a time when the originals written by The Beatles were never bad. This album is very impressively constructed for the time of it's release, and is a lot more of an album statement than Please Please Me which was basically just a live record in the studio. This showed every kid in the world that they could form their own bands and write their own songs which was super important. This is easily the peak of quality for Beatlemania with the band having changed England with their first two records, changed the world with their singles, and cemented their legacy as the most exciting band to exist at that point, if not ever. Add to that the brilliant pioneering film that was packaged with it, and the civil rights activism The Beatles inadvertently pushed for by just being decent people, and this era of the band centring around this album heralded in a new age and opened the floodgates for freedom of expression in music. The only other person who could dispute those claims for themselves was Bob Dylan but Dylan didn't excite the world the way The Beatles did nor did he change film history or influence fashion or create the standard of the pop construct to this very day or define his generation. He was almost a political commentator, an incredible storytellor who changed a lot for music and politics but didn't step outside those arenas and chances are people who weren't likeminded to Dylan remained ignorant whereas those who weren't likeminded to The Beatles, grew to reassess things and in a sense helped the political change arguably even more. The Beatles were at the top of their game here. The next two albums in some way were more mature efforts but they didn't go far enough with the maturity that would change the group's image in their latter-period and weren't as fun as this. We'll get to them later, but this is really the album that defined The Beatles for the rest of time. if they broke up after this album, it'd be a damn shame to stop the momentum in it's tracks like that but they'd still be remembered. I can't say that about their previous albums which would have relegated them to the bargain bins. They'd be a fascinating and innovative band briefly popular in Britain earlier on. But the success of the Ed Sullivan appearances and the build up to this album is quite possibly the most important milestone in musical history from it's where everything that was to come would then come. Do I love this album? No. I do like it but it's not sequenced well enough for me to love it and it's not my favourite style of music anyways. However i do appreciate this album. So so much.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2017 23:02:57 GMT 10
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Post by BluesyThug on Aug 22, 2017 18:01:53 GMT 10
I'm sorta out of the Beatles loop at this point, and haven't listened to them regularly enough to give this a fair judgement with fresh ears. However, A Hard Day's Night is unquestionably a strong early entry, and although I prefer the two preceding albums over it, it is very impressive that already the Beatles are capable of writing every track on the album while remaining relatively strong consistently.
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