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The Beatles - The Beatles (AKA The White Album) (2CD)The White Album was meant to be the record that brought the Beatles back to earth after three years of studio experimentation. Instead, it took them all over the place, continuing to burst the envelope of pop music. Lennon and McCartney were still at the height of their songwriting powers, with Lennon in particular growing into one of music's towering figures. But even McCartney could still rock, and the amazement on "Helter Skelter" was that he had vocal cords at the end. From Beach Boys knock-offs to reggae and to the unknown ("Revolution #9"), this has it all. Some records have "legend" written all over them; this is one. --Chris Nickson... Read More »
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Average User Rating: 80% (83 Reviews) | |
| 5 / 5 | The album I return to most often
R. Rowley (Oxford) - 18 July 2001 It's hard to compare this album to any other by the Beatles: it's a double album (with two beginnings, two climaxes, two endings and two tracks sung by Ringo) at over 90 minutes in length. Moreover, the variety of the music involved is unmatched anywhere else in their repertoire. Here we have their heaviest rock (Helter Skelter, Birthday), their sweetest and most syrupy tunes (Blackbird, Julia, Goodnight), their most interesting social comment (Piggies, Revolution, Bungalow Bill), tuneless sampling (Revolution 9), pure blues (Yer Blues) and 20s ditties (Honey Pie, Martha My Dear) plus simply great tunes like USSR and Mother Nature's Son, oh and a parody of over-interpreting their lyrics (Glass Onion). All that's missing is a George sitar song, but it doesn't matter since we've got his While My Guitar Gently Weeps instead. So why is it not their 'Best Ever Album'? Well probably for the very reasons given above: it's all a little too much. It's length and the variety of styles makes it a treat to dip into but hard work going from start to stop. A single artistic vision fails to shine through, presumably because the individual Beatles were growing rapidly apart. For me however the 'White Album' is the one I come back to most often and, along with 'Revolver' and 'Abbey Road', one of their best three.... Read Full Review » |
| 5 / 5 | Eclectic Brilliance
John Heaton (Budapest, Hungary) - 19 February 2006 This was a brave follow up to Sgt Pepper. So completely different and so diverse, it is a virtual dictionary of all musical styles. When I first heard it in 1978 I was completely blown away. This is the album where they were not only on top of their game but also had the self confidence to put out an album of no less than 30 songs! One has often come to the conclusion that there was no room in one band for three such stupendous songwriters. So here they got around that by releasing a brilliant double album. There has been much talk of how things might have been better had they reduced this to a single album. What bollocks! For a start, no Beatles fan has ever agreed which tracks should have been shelved. As Paul says in one of his finest lines ever: ’Shut up it’s the bloddy Beatles album’. That it is, and we are eternally grateful. John Lennon never reached the peaks he reaches here. All his songs are wonderful. From the finger picking ’Dear Prudence’ with a stomping bass line from Paul to the tour de force group effort ’Happiness Is A Warm Gun’ to the supremely melodic ’Sexy Sadie’. Who ever said that McCartney wrote all the melodies is sadly mistaken. This is a melody to die for. And there is ’Julia’, the sweet and moving lament to his lost mother and the Mother he had found in Yoko. ’Revolution’ needs no introduction. Even if this slower album version is slightly inferior to the raucous rendition on the B Side of Hey Jude, it is mighty fine all the same. ’Cry Baby Cry’ is a wonderfully atmospheric piece with Paul contributing some suitably eerie piano. Even the lesser Lennon numbers are exciting: Glass Onion (with its famous tribute to Paul), ’Everybody’s Got Something To Hide’ sees The Beatles rocking like they never had before. And ’Bungalow Bill’ is a fun sing-along but with a dark lyric which is wonderful in its parody of the tiger-shooting guy who was with them at Maharishi’s camp where everyone was supposed to be peaceful! ’I’m So Tired’ has to be the ultimate Lost Album Track. No one seems to know this masterpiece outside the inner Beatles fan circle. Take a listen as Lennon said in the intro to his song ’Scared’ 6 years later. ’Yer Blues’ is another band tour de force, recorded in a small room with all four Beatles. Which was not the case for every number here. And Paul, the other half of that great songwriting partnership has never surpassed the quality of material he produces here. With the possible exception of the Beatles’ final album ’Abbey Road’. ’Back In The USSR’ is a timeless rocker, ’Obla-Di Obla-Da is effortlessly magical. As is ’Matha My Dear’ (where does he find these melodies from?!). ’I Will’ and ’Blackbird’ are two of his very finest acoustic numbers. Which as we know, again to quote Edmund Blackadder, is up against some pretty stiff competition. And then we have here from Paul ’Helter Skelter’, ’Why Don’t We Do It In The Road’ and ’Birthday’, three stupendous rockers that you could easily be forgiven for thinking that Lennon was behind them. But No. As most people know by now Paul could rock with the best of them. God Bless You Paul. And if that wasn’t enough, we have four George Harrisongs. ’While My Guitar’ is marvellous. Another masterful group performance, albeit without any contribution from Lennon. But Eric Clapton’s wonderful distorted guitar solos and Paul’s piano intro and stomping bass line make up for that. ’Piggies’ and ’Savoy Truffle’ are minor gems. But ’Long Long Long’ is a George ballad up there in the etchelons. The way it follows the mayhem of ’Helter Skelter’ is a genius of progamming. Oh I forgot ’Honey Pie’ from Paul, the superb following number to ’Revolution’. Sublime. And then buried on Side 3 (vinyl) is ’Mother Nature’s Son’ which is close to the definition of Beauty. Ringo chips in with his first composition ’Don’t Pass Me By’, which The Band told George was their favourite off the album. It is infectious. And then following the avant garde collage ’Revolution 9’ (the only track whose inclusion is even remotely controversial) we have Ringo singing ’Good Night’. A perfect close to a pretty near perfect album. They would go to produce two more albums after this but this is the last album where, despite the tensions and the obvious individuality of the 30 tracks on offer here, TheBeatles believed in themselves wholeheartedly. It is quite possibly their greatest masterpiece. ... Read Full Review » |
| 5 / 5 | The beginning of the end of the Beatles
Peter Durward Harris "Pete the music fan" (Leicester England) - 11 January 2005 This was recorded at a time when tensions within the group were really beginning to tell so many of the tracks are more like solo offerings from the individual members than Beatles tracks. The album opens in great style with Back in the USSR. The lyrics are not overtly political though they are out of date - the airline BOAC long ago became part of British Airways and the USSR eventually divided into its component parts. I wonder what John Lennon would think now if he were alive. Still, Back in the USSR is a great opening song for the album. The album maintains this high standard for the next three tracks. Dear Prudence is a superb ballad. Glass onion reminds us about earlier Beatles songs such as Strawberry fields forever, I am the walrus, Lady Madonna, Fool on the hill and Fixing a hole - the lyrics are very clever. Ob-la-di ob-la-da is a very catchy song about a happy couple, which became a huge international hit for Marmalade and topped the UK charts. After that, there is Wild honey pie, a short and somewhat meaningless piece that could have been omitted - it appears to be an outtake, recorded when they were trying to work out how to record Honey pie, the official version of which is on the second CD. The continuing story of Bungalow Bill is a great song, which I'm sure contains a message but haven't figured it out. Next comes a truly outstanding ballad written by George Harrison - While my guitar gently weeps. Nothing else on the remainder of the album is up to that standard although there is plenty of great music. I particularly like Martha my dear, I'm so tired, Blackbird, I will and Julia on the remainder of the first CD. On the second CD, my favorites are Sexy Sadie, Helter-skelter, Revolution 1, Honey pie, Savoy Truffle and Cry baby cry. Like the first CD, the second CD contains a meaningless piece - Revolution 9 - but this time it's a full-length track. This is different from any other Beatles album, which explains why people who don't normally like the Beatles sometimes enjoy this album, As a committed Beatles fan, I find this album to be interesting and entertaining in many ways but there are other Beatles albums that I play more frequently than this one. |
| 3 / 5 | Forgive me for speaking my mind.
dynamitekid156 "dynamitekid156" (Notts) - 3 May 2007 The Beatles are arguably, but certainly the most likely candidate for being, the greatest group of all time. In 1968, they'd done most everything a band could do and much, much more. They'd innovated, they'd become a studio band, they'd released insane quasi-concept albums the likes of which no-one had ever seen. Anticipating trends mere seconds after they broke but months before they became common knowledge, they continued this aptitude for feeling the pulse of pop culture in 1968, with the back-to-basics single 'Lady Madonna.' Signalling the return to minimalist hard rock that would soon result, it also heralded the Beatles' only double album. Affectionately known as The White Album, The Beatles regularly makes the top ten in greatest of all time lists, and when approaching its 95 extensive minutes I can both understand it and disagere with it. If there's one thing that is to this album's credit, it's that there is certainly something for pretty much everybody. Fans of the childish singalongs like 'Yellow Submarine' could appreciate 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da' (possibly the most innocuous song ever to result in litigation). Fans of the hard rock that became the trend could take solace in the fanastic opener 'Back In The USSR' or the ironic depression of Lennon's superb 'Yer Blues.' Meanwhile, those fans of avant-garde acts like The Pink Floyd may have shown an interest in the nine-minute sound collage 'Revolution Nine.' However, at the same time, what makes this album so varied is what also makes it one of the Beatles' lesser albums. As a mixed bag of styles, it's also a mixed bag of quality, with a good third of it worthless joke songs or simply bad music. This may be a controversial view on my part, and certainly get me some 'this review was no useful' votes, but I stand by it. But this doesn't mean it's a bad album. The good stuff on here is really, truly great stuff. And even though parts of it are awful, the album is worth listening to all the way through a few times simply because it's an amazing ride, a true experience of an album that you don't get so much these days.... Read Full Review » |
| 4 / 5 | one to buy after you've bought the rest
- 28 February 2002 John Lennon said something to the effect that you could hear the Beatles were in the process of splitting up on the White Album. It's not cohesive like Sgt Peppers or Magical Mystery Tour - it's like the collision of three solo albums with less of a sense of collaboration. There are many brilliant songs(Blackbird, Happiness is a Warm Gun, Me and My Monkey), and some not so brilliant (Goodnight, Revolution 9). Back in the USSR takes you back to the 'fab' days and 'Dear Prudence' has a Sgt Peppers feel - the overall impression (for me) though, is one of listening to a collection of songs pulled together long after the band had split up - a collection of rarities left in the can. The length of the album works against it, and maybe that's all that's wrong ith it at the end of the day. I guarantee that by the time you get to know the White Album, you'll be able to go through the track list and pull together a killer single album. Well worth having though, but if you're just getting to know the Beatles, my advice is start with Revolver, Sgt Pepper's or Magical Mystery Tour. You'll buy the White Album eventually anyway.... Read Full Review » |
RRP
£44.99
Release Date
24 August 1987
Price Range
£13.99 - £26.99