Review:

on 2011-02-22 CharlesMartel Said:

After the Beatles broke up in 1970, EMI, their parent record company, was faced with a huge void. After having the most successful band ever on their books, a fact which made them huge amounts of cash, how were they going to fill the gap in their future finances now they couldn't get the band to put out one or two albums a year. The answer was the compilation album. With a few years gap between the demise of the Beatles behind them, EMI started to release summaries of the Beatles albums. By the time I came round to looking at the Beatles as music to consider buying, I decided that, financial circumstances being what they were, I was not going to shell out on the entire back catalogue of the band. Compilations became the only option.

This album is a solid compilation of the Beatles' early work which goes with its blue sibling as pretty much an essential summary of the work of the Beatles. You cannot separate the two albums as they were basically planned together and released almost simultaneously as a comprehensive collection of the band's best-loved works. Best-loved Beatles' works encompasses so many songs that they were never going to fit on one vinyl. Quadruple albums were pretty much unheard of so two double albums were the result.

Which of the two albums you actually prefer depends upon personal taste. Just get both if you don't want to get their entire back collection. As far as I am concerned, this particular half represents the best of the Beatles over all. That may seem a strange statement to make when you consider that my favourite Beatles' tracks would be on the blue album.

This one has all their earliest pop hits and, as it progresses, marks the beginnings of the transition to the soft rock and psychedelia they would later play. It marks the Beatles at the height of their prowess and fame and covers the days when Beatlemania was sweeping the world, just before the band began the experimental phase which, in my humble opinion, produced some of their most uninspiring music and ultimately resulted in their break-up. This is the Beatles before they became jaded and disillusioned. This is the Beatles before LSD and the Maharishi. This is the Beatles before Linda Eastmann and Yoko fucking Ono. This is the Beatles as I prefer to remember them.

I confess to not being the greatest Beatles fan in the world, not by a long chalk. Yes, I recognise the impact they had on music and understand and give them credit for changing the face of popular music forever. But in that they can rank alongside Elvis, Cream, even the Sex Pistols. But let's be honest here, over thirty years after the band broke up, and forty years since they produced the tracks on this compilation, is it not time for a thorough and honest review of their iconic status? I ask any die-hard Beatles fan one simple question - if any particularly iconic track was done by a band other than the Beatles, would it still be regarded as particularly iconic? I have my doubts the answer would be 'yes' such is the almost unquestioning reverence given by some to anything with the Beatles' name on it.

Of course, as with any compilation, there are individual tracks which each person may regret not having been included. But do not let that deter you. This is as good a Beatles' compilation as you will find, or at least as good as a half of a Beatles' compilation.
Rating: 7/10