Marking fifty years since their final release, Platform’s deputy editor Jamie Morris gives his ranking of the Beatles’ twelve studio albums…
12. Yellow Submarine (1969)
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Yellow Submarine is by no means a bad album – in fact, from any other artist, it’d be considered a pretty good one. But sandwiched between the White Album and Abbey Road, it becomes very easy to forget, especially when its two most memorable tracks are repackaged from elsewhere.
Take out producer George Martin’s orchestral score from the film of the same name, and all that remains are fifteen minutes of new Beatles songs, none of which – besides George Harrison’s It’s All Too Much – are particularly big takeaways. The band’s previous movie soundtrack, the Magical Mystery Tour EP, has a lot more to enjoy.
11. Let It Be (1970)
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The Beatles’ last album has always been more of an epilogue than a grand finale. By the time Let It Be was released, the band had been split for nearly a month and never actually recorded anything as a single unit again in the studio since the closing track of 1969’s Abbey Road.
This is noticeable across the LP, with the majority of its songs failing to quite live up to the (ridiculously) high standard they’d set over the previous few years. That being said, this swan song isn’t without its highlights. The Long And Winding Road is an especially moving example, and the album’s title track sits among their greatest and most iconic songs.
10. A Hard Day’s Night (1964)
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Ranking the first half of this discography is a bit of a challenge due to the similarity in both style and quality between the earliest releases. Largely down to Lennon and McCartney’s boundlessly imaginative songwriting, the Beatles’ early output has no discernable dips in quality and boasts a vast selection of great music.
Despite this, A Hard Day’s Night seems to have the least individual identity out of these pre-Rubber Soul records. It’s a consistent selection of really enjoyable songs, and most likely still the favourite album of lots of fans – but the Beatles had been and would become significantly better than this.
9. Beatles For Sale (1964)
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Labelled as a low point in their discography by some, the Beatles’ fourth album often flies under the radar. Nearly half of For Sale is made up of covers, including songs from Chuck Berry and Buddy Holly. These are still good tunes, but a relative lack of Lennon-McCartney gems is a bit of drawback.
Luckily, the original content is great. I’m A Loser signals a more introspective turn for the songwriting duo, while Every Little Thing brings folk influences to the table to make this LP feel almost like a Rubber Soul prototype.
8. With The Beatles (1963)
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The second album of an artist’s career is the most important. It’s an opportunity to show that they’re not just a one-hit wonder, and maybe even to pursue an entirely new creative direction after initial success.
With the Beatles, the former would be true. Their follow-up to Please Please Me sounds like it could be part of the same album both in terms of style and quality, which is a pretty damn good thing to be. Out of a really strong track listing, All My Loving is the standout here.
7. Help! (1965)
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In the context of their wider discography, Help! isn’t really a major stylistic milestone – but it is one of the most consistently impressive collections they’d released up to that point. The Night Before, Ticket To Ride and the title track are some notable additions, plus the Bob Dylan-esque You’ve Got To Hide Your Love Away.
Above all, though, the best thing about this album is that it gave us Yesterday. The melody, which came to McCartney in a dream, is simply iconic, having been covered over 2,200 times and with live performances in the millions.
6. Please Please Me (1963)
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The Beatles’ debut begins with a hearty “One, two, three, four!” – a simple headcount that nobody could ever have anticipated would be the beginning of a musical revolution. Even with the hindsight of their subsequent eleven LPs, Please Please Me holds up as a sublime work.
While the band’s initial sound isn’t a huge departure from what you’d expect to find in the wider sixties rock ‘n’ roll and Merseybeat scene, their talent was clear right from the off. Each of the fourteen love songs are distinct, timeless and demonstrate a proficiency for producing pop that has seldom been seen since. It’s a wonderfully uplifting record that everybody needs to hear.
5. Abbey Road (1969)
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If Let It Be is the Beatles’ epilogue, that makes Abbey Road the true grand finale – and what a grand one it is. Following their sprawling self-titled project, the group continued to move forward and innovate. Lennon and McCartney draw from a multitude of influences to create a work featuring perfectly catchy songs like Come Together and Here Comes The Sun, plus some more progressive, meditative tracks.
The best of the latter is the bluesy 8-minute I Want You – the conclusion to the album’s first half – but there’s still more greatness to be found on Side B’s continuous medley, including Golden Slumbers and Carry That Weight. In The End, the Fab Four summarise the philosophy they always championed: “The love you take is equal to the love you make.”
4. The Beatles (1968)
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You’ve got to wonder what people’s expectations were when this was released in ‘68. The band’s past few albums at least gave people an idea, such as the busy, colourful artwork of Sgt. Pepper’s – but with a blank cover, The Beatles could’ve been anything at all.
In a way, that’s exactly what they gave us. Jumping from the satirical rock & roll of Back In The U.S.S.R. to the gentle lyrics of Blackbird and again to the delirious sound collage Revolution 9, this double LP is the Beatles’ most vast work. The album peaks with Harrison’s masterful While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
3. Rubber Soul (1965)
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This is the place to start if you still don’t understand why the Beatles are held in such high regard. After a chain of LPs living in the shadow of Please Please Me, the band perfected their initial style in 1965 with their first truly brilliant collection of songs.
On a Gibbs triangle of variety, consistency and thematic unity, Rubber Soul sits firmly in the middle. Each track – other than the lyrically questionable Run For Your Life – instantly works its way from your ears right into your heart. In My Life showcases Lennon and McCartney at their most sentimental, and as always, there’s a Harrison highlight in If I Needed Someone.
2. Revolver (1966)
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Revolver is by far the most significant turning point in the Beatles’ career. At this point, Lennon had already made the infamous “Bigger than Jesus” claim, and it was true; the group could have made another five Rubber Souls and the world would have lapped them up all the same.
Instead, they committed to a complete rebirth, opening the doors to psychedelia – and the end result is one of the most haunting and fascinating albums ever made. Revolver features masterpieces like Eleanor Rigby, I’m Only Sleeping, She Said, And Your Bird Can Sing all on one disc. It’s hard to comprehend the Beatles at a level any greater than this – but this was only “the end of the beginning.”
1. Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
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Widely regarded as not only the Beatles’ crowning achievement, but also the greatest album of all time, Sgt. Pepper’s placement atop this list should come as no surprise. This early concept album is the group at their most adventurous, rebranding themselves as a fictional band performing a concert to serve as the ultimate musical escapism.
There’s just so much to love about this LP, including the mystifyingly psychedelic Lucy In The Sky, the uplifting yet bittersweet Getting Better and Harrison’s life-affirming Within You Without You. Even its lows – namely Mr. Kite and Sixty-Four – are innovative, gratifying tracks. But the Beatles save their finest work for last: the phenomenal A Day In The Life, flawless from its dreamlike opening up until the thunderous final chord.
Count and you’ll find that Sgt. Pepper’s climax lingers for a total of forty seconds – but in reality, the Beatles’ opus has been continually reverberating since 1967. Decades later in 1993, comic book writer and Pepperland apostle Grant Morrison would pen the words: “There is another world. A better world.” Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is our proof.
By Jamie Morris
Feature Image Credit: Time Magazine