Revolver

 

    Revolver seems like a shift in what The Beatles want to make, expanding out from their typical pop focused tracks to being more experimental and creative with their music. A lot of the songs here still have pretty similar structuring as before, with lots of short 2 minute verse-chorus-bridge songs, but the instrumentation and timbre of everything does a great job of helping all the songs sound unique and gives Revolver its own solid identity in the band's discography up to this point. Different styles of guitar between both acoustic and electric, implementation of fully realized string units, and the introduction of their beloved sitar really make it feel like the band is coming into their own and moving past the initial pop rock sound that found them their fame in the first place, and in my opinion I think that it's all pulled off pretty well. They're able to take their established identity and incorporate these new elements smoothly in a way that simultaneously doesn't completely disassociate from the rest of their work while still being new and inventive. In addition to this, the lyrical content and theming of the songs continues from where Rubber Soul started with broader subject matter and really expands the tone of the songs. I'd like to add here that I think their singing capabilities are excellent here and show great improvement from their previous works (where they already were pretty good) especially Paul and George. And now although I've been purely positive up to this point, I feel like the overall result of the album is that it's just a solid "good". It's not mind-blowing or fantastic to me, but it's pretty good and a great step up from their last couple outings that I've listened to. It's a tough call between 4 and 5 and I can tell I'm probably going to flip-flop on it in the future during relistens, but I think that it's got enough going for it to get the higher score. Pretty good album that I think evolves the band's style nicely and has me optimistic for what's to follow. 

    Highlights: Taxman, Eleanor Rigby, Love You To, And Your Bird Can Sing, For No One, Got to Get You into My Life.

Rating: 5/6