Your Favorite Album

[beatlefreak]

Cry Baby, Cry has always been one of my favorites, also.

[JWL1964]

Has anyone noticed how it has has become more and more unfashionable to regard Pepper as the Fab's best album?

It used to be the case a few years back, (in England anyway) that it went without saying that Pepper was the best album ever made and everything else was battling for silver. So what's changed?

Undoubtedly some of it is because when most of the songs are heard on their own, taken from their context on the LP (album), they don't stand up particularly well in terms of quality when compared to other Beatles songs, (Apart from A Day in the Life). But I think some of it is just over-familarity with the songs over the years breeding contempt. There's no doubt, when played from start to finish, that Pepper is awesome and in my opinion functions far better as an 'album' than Revolver or Rubber Soul. Whilst the individual songs may be arguably of a higher quality on these two, they are are not as well sequenced as Pepper, nor do they carry the same universal feeling/spirit throughout. To me the only other Beatles album that comes close to Pepper in terms of 'being an album' is Abbey Road, but even then, only the second side.

Having said all of this, my favourite album is Revolver!!!!!

I just can't get away from And Your Bird Can Sing (John's vocal, Paul's Bass playing, that riff), Taxman (Macca's solo), Tomorrow Never Knows (Ringo's Hypnotic drum pattern, John's stoned vocal delivery), The whole thing basically, apart from Doctor Robert which I've never really been a massive fan of. There you go, rant over!!

[Scastles]

Has anyone noticed how it has has become more and more unfashionable to regard Pepper as the Fab's best album?

When Pepper first came out, and for some time after, we were absorbed by the grandeur of the album. The uniqueness. At the time we also bought into the pitch the album was the definitive album of the summer of love, and the Beatles definitive album. As time passed, Pepper waned, and Beatle fans were able to more closely regard and comb through each album they ever recorded, reaching new conclusions about which periodic works reflected thier work at their zenith. It's not to say Pepper wasn't ground breaking, but lacked endurance over time. I admit I became a much bigger fan of 'Revolver' years after its release, and much less of a fan of Pepper as time went by. Just my thought.

[JakeK]

Rubber Soul
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper
The White Album
Abbey Road
Hard Day's Night
Help!
With the Beatles
Please Please Me
Beatles for Sale
Magical Mystery Tour (too trippy for me)
Let it Be

[nukebass]

Pepper is more dated than their other albums, I think. That doesn't mean it isn't a great album. The only songs I don't care for are She's Leaving Home and Within You and Without You. That bass playing is great and the creativity is top notch, it just sounds more like a "summer of love" album than the others. Magical Mystery Tour has the same problem. Hmmm, I think I'll take MMT in my truck to listen to today...

[beefandbones]

Yeah, 'best' is a pretty useless word, really. I'd venture to say that Sgt. Pepper was probably the Beatles' most influencial album, at least in terms of the 60s, 70s and 80s, in the sense that most ambitious recording artists wanted to replicate the sense of 'event' that surrounded the album. And Sgt. Pepper itself is ambitious, if it's nothing else. Over time it's naturally been re-evaluated, as you might naturally re-evaluate something that was considered the "best" for twenty or thirty years.

Sgt. Pepper, for all it's ambition and production craft (which was novel at the time, but due to its influence, appears less novel today) isn't as solid and concise as Revolver or as intense and diverse as the White Album. Still a great record, though.

[deaconblues]

Good choice on "AHDN," Kris...a landmark album for sure.

After much thought, I'd order them:

Let it Be
A Hard Day's Night
Revolver
Sgt. Pepper
Rubber Soul
Abbey Road
Help!
Beatles For Sale
Magical Mystery Tour
The Beatles (White Album)
Please Please Me
With the Beatles
Yellow Submarine (- shoot me please)

I know, I'm weird... Can't stand a lot of stuff on the White Album for some reason. Probably too much McCartney.

[shamustwin]

I'd have to rank them by what I perceive as three distinct Beatle eras: Early, mid and late.

Even then, I can't choose a single fave from each!

Early:
PPM
AHDN

Mid:
RS
Revolver

Late:
AR
TWA

[teeder]

I always considered it 4 eras, with a "Pepper" era starting with Strawberry Fields and ending with the Yellow Submarine stuff.
Either way it's tough to pin down a favorite.

[JakeK]

With the new remasters, I thought I'd dig up this old thread to express that I've been listening to a lot more Beatles lately. My favorite is still "Rubber Soul", followed by "Revolver". My least favorite is still the Spector-version of "Let It Be", when it comes to listening to that album, I always choose "Let It Be...Naked".

I don't know if "Yellow Submarine" is actually a Beatles album, I always like to couple the "Mystery Tour" and "Submarine" songs as one album, and put "Strawberry Fields"/"Penny Lane" into "Pepper". And for the record, I never owned the movie soundtrack of "Yellow Submarine", so I don't actually have a recording of "Hey Bulldog" at all...Shame on me.

[peewee]

For me, it's always been:

Revolver

Rubber Soul

White Album

Sgt. Pepper

[beatlefreak]

I don't know if "Yellow Submarine" is actually a Beatles album.

The origianl idea for YS was to release an EP of the four new songs at the time - Only A Northern Song, Hey Bulldog, All Together Now and It's All Too Much. The idea never gained ground, thouhg, as the EP format hadn't been popular in the U.S. since the very early sixties, and was also dying out as a format in the U.K.

[FretlessOnly]

I don't know if "Yellow Submarine" is actually a Beatles album.

The origianl idea for YS was to release an EP of the four new songs at the time - Only A Northern Song, Hey Bulldog, All Together Now and It's All Too Much. The idea never gained ground, thouhg, as the EP format hadn't been popular in the U.S. since the very early sixties, and was also dying out as a format in the U.K.

And although All Together Now is a bit of a throwaway; it still is a catchy tune, and the remaining three are really quite good, with Hey Bulldog being in my top 10 Beatle cuts ever. All four are on the masters disc in the mono box set, and they sound fantastic!

As for albums, I suppose I need to take into account the latest mono releases (I didn't get the stereo set), but not much has changed:

Revolver
Sgt. Pepper
MMT (hey; it's got Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, I am the Walrus, and All You Need is Love!)
Rubber Soul
Abbey Road
White Album
Yellow Submarine (re-mastered 1999 version - quite a nice compilation)
Help!
All that other early stuff that I rarely listen to
Let it Be, in any incarnation; little more than a cardboard tombstone

But some things are missing from an album list; for example - Paperback Writer and Rain are two of my absolute favorites. Strange; they were recorded during the Revolver sessions.

[peewee]

I'd be happy just to see a reissue of the Hey Jude album. I still have my close to worn out vinyl release here and would love to have a CD version. Granted, you can get all the material elsewhere, but where else can you find the great cover art with Lennon looking like a hippie Mennonite -- guess that would make him a Lennonite!

[sloop_john_b]

White Album is my fave, but gosh is Abbey Road hard to top.