Music: Artist Discussion & Rank the Discography: The Beatles

[Saturated Fats]

Hey all,

With the success of last year's mammoth 'Best Album of the Years' undertaking, I thought it'd be fun to host another project that acted as a gathering of the music nerds. As such, I felt it'd a great conversation piece to go through discographies from some of the major artists/musical acts of the past century, and rank their albums in accordance with our love for them. This can also serve as a general 'Artist Discussion' thread, in which you share thoughts, memories, histories, experiences, etc. about the artist.

We'll start with the Fab Four because, well... obvious reasons. For the purposes of this exercise, I'll be using only studio albums or soundtracks, meaning that live albums, reissues, archival compilations, or Best Of compilations are excluded from the reckoning. I'll be using the lists at Rate Your Music to determine eligibility. I'll keep these polls open for 5 days, but the convo can keep going for as long as you'd like. For a band to be eligible, I'm going to set the minimum of 5 studio albums/soundtracks as a requirement.

I'm also totally open to suggestions for future acts to review, but I've put together a list of the first 5 - just to get the project rolling:

Next rate: Kanye West
Followed by: Black Sabbath, Miles Davis, David Bowie

Click to read more...

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

With the success of last year's mammoth 'Best Album of the Years' undertaking

Which was never completed!! ;-)

I'm still on it, re-listening to everything in order to put together my favorite top-100 (which will probably end up at 150).

 

[montreal]

I considered myself a Beatles fan but from that thread last year I ended up realizing I wasn't nearly as big of a fan as I thought as I ended up listening to a bunch of songs I never knew so because of that thread I ended up expanding my Beatles playlist.

 

[kihei]

Favourite: Help
Greatest: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band

Which am I checking?

Later, actually I should have said, are we choosing our fave or which one we think is the greatest?

 

[reckoning]

I voted Revolver, but to be honest everything before Sgt. Peppers were just collections of songs rather than cohesive albums. I remember Ringo saying once in an interview that he often can't remember which songs are on which albums from that period, as it seemed like they were just constantly recording one song after another in the studio.

And then there's the fact that the track listings on the albums were different in the U.K. and North America. The british versions became the accepted standard when their catalogue was released on cd in the 80s. But if you lived in the U.S. or Canada in the 60s, your version of Revolver didn't have "I'm Only Sleeping" or "And Your Bird Can Sing". Several songs from Help, Rubber Soul and Revolver were instead put on an album called Yesterday And Today, which isn't even considered a real album today and is only remembered for its cover.

I love the Beatles like everyone else, but my two unpopular opinions on them are:

1) I've never understood what's so great about "A Day In The Life". I absolutely hate the Paul part.
2) Half of the songs on The White Album are lazy garbage throwaway tracks that should have been left for a rarities release after they retired.

 

[BigBadBruins7708]

Meet the Beatles (1964)

Overall, I know I'm a bit in the minority. I much prefer the early pop Beatles to the later albums. They put out a lot of bad songs on those later albums that get hailed as "genius" (*cough* I Am The Walrus). The early albums are all great pop songs with no let downs. The later albums are completely feast or famine

"I Saw Her Standing There" is their best song IMO, followed closely by "While My Guitar Gently Weeps"

 

[Shareefruck]

I voted Revolver, but to be honest everything before Sgt. Peppers were just collections of songs rather than cohesive albums. I remember Ringo saying once in an interview that he often can't remember which songs are on which albums from that period, as it seemed like they were just constantly recording one song after another in the studio.

And then there's the fact that the track listings on the albums were different in the U.K. and North America. The british versions became the accepted standard when their catalogue was released on cd in the 80s. But if you lived in the U.S. or Canada in the 60s, your version of Revolver didn't have "I'm Only Sleeping" or "And Your Bird Can Sing". Several songs from Help, Rubber Soul and Revolver were instead put on an album called Yesterday And Today, which isn't even considered a real album today and is only remembered for its cover.

I love the Beatles like everyone else, but my two unpopular opinions on them are:

1) I've never understood what's so great about "A Day In The Life". I absolutely hate the Paul part.
2) Half of the songs on The White Album are lazy garbage throwaway tracks that should have been left for a rarities release after they retired.

I'd actually sooner disagree with your initial take than the two that you highlighted as unpopular (which I find very reasonable and true at least to some extent-- especially the Paul side of A Day in the Life stinking), personally.

I've always been kind of annoyed by the common thought that concept albums with lots of direct transitions, connections from one song to the next, and by-design recurring themes are what makes albums cohesive. To me, the more elusively ambiguous/subjective flower-arrangement-esque art of arranging not-obviously-related collections of songs are what makes the idea of album cohesiveness cool and inspired, personally, and I largely prefer the arrangement of albums like Rubber Soul and Revolver over the more direct "make it feel like one giant interconnected song" flow of Abbey Road, Sgt. Peppers, and to a lesser extent the White Album (I often find albums that get praised for doing that somewhat overrated, unnecessarily gimmicky, and sort of missing the point-- in kind of the same way as a videogame trying too hard to be a movie or something). Weirdly, I get that same type of inspired feeling from how certain seasons of TV shows that are episodic/anthology-like are ordered (like Louie and Cowboy Bebop for example), but never from how directly serialized shows are.

I also find none of the American versions particularly cohesive or good (and yes, I was first exposed to the US versions-- if anything, that caused me to take way longer to be convinced that Beatles albums were actually any good), except MAYBE Revolver, which is just missing tracks. Not that that should even be a factor anyways-- There can be lots of variations of the right way to do something-- more than one existing isn't evidence that one of those ways isn't cohesive.

Then again, that might just be my unpopular opinion, though.

 

[JohnC]

Chalk me up as another person that prefers the front half of the discography to the back half a lot of the time, mostly because I do not think as highly of The White Album as others.

As I've gotten older, I've started to appreciate pop music a lot more for what it is, and the front half of The Beatles discography is where it all started.

That opinion doesn't really bear out in my top 3, though: Help!, Revolver, & Abbey Road

 

[Fantomas]

Voted Revolver, but A Hard Day's Night is so underrated and quality all the way through.

 

[MakeTheGoalsLarger]

Sgt. Pepper : song by song Revolver is better but Sgt. Pepper has that atmosphere which is so unique.The best songs sound amazing.

It's a shame Penny Lane and Strawberry fields forever weren't included on the record.

Chalk me up as another person that prefers the front half of the discography to the back half a lot of the time, mostly because I do not think as highly of The White Album as others.

in my case my prefrence is precisely toward the middle: 66-67, that's when the magic happened.

 

[x Tame Impala]

If I could pretend that half of The White Album doesn’t exist then that would be my choice. There’s a lot of fat that needs to be trimmed but there are so many classics and a lot of lesser-talked about ones as well.

Also, the first two songs on it (Back in the USSR and Dear Prudence) is one of my favorite openings to an album ever

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

Sgt. Pepper : song by song Revolver is better but Sgt. Pepper has that atmosphere which is so unique.The best songs sound amazing.

I'd argue the White Album has too a unique atmosphere! And IMO its best songs are even better.

If I could pretend that half of The White Album doesn’t exist then that would be my choice. There’s a lot of fat that needs to be trimmed

I don't get that. I mean, I really hate Birthday, but that's really the only one I'd cut out of the album, even though they sure are not all equal. I don't really get the unconditional acclaim for Revolver either, it does have my favorite Beatles song, but it also has Taxman and Dr. Robert, which are both bottom feeders to me.

Anyway, there's so many different angles to appreciate music that I can't take anybody making definite affirmations very seriously. So to me, it's the White one, followed by the Mystery Tour, but I wouldn't argue against any other one.

 

[archangel2]

Rubber soul and revelver the two albums that sent rockandroll down a new path

 

[Jumptheshark]

One question. Are you talking about the UK releases or US releases? On 4 albums there are big changes

 

[Shareefruck]

I'd argue the White Album has too a unique atmosphere! And IMO its best songs are even better.



I don't get that. I mean, I really hate Birthday, but that's really the only one I'd cut out of the album, even though they sure are not all equal. I don't really get the unconditional acclaim for Revolver either, it does have my favorite Beatles song, but it also has Taxman and Dr. Robert, which are both bottom feeders to me.

Anyway, there's so many different angles to appreciate music that I can't take anybody making definite affirmations very seriously. So to me, it's the White one, followed by the Mystery Tour, but I wouldn't argue against any other one.

Birthday and Why Don't We Do it On the Road are the two that actively annoy me and ruins the flow of the album for me, and I don't care much for Don't Pass Me By either. The rest fit the album pretty well, though, IMO.

 

[JohnC]

The Esher demos and the Anthology versions of the White Album improve a lot of the songs.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da Is such a lame song but I really love the Anthology version.

 

[Eisen]

To me it's A Hard Day's Night. Just a good album from start to end.

 

[kihei]

I'd argue the White Album has too a unique atmosphere! And IMO its best songs are even better.

I don't think The White Album has any atmosphere at all--the various songs sound like sneak previews of four solo careers.

Also, I don't think Sgt Pepper' Lonely Hearts Club Band has the best songs; on that, ahem, score, I would probably rate the album 5th or 6th. But I do think it is an absolutely brilliant concept album, perhaps the best ever. It's like a series of short stories about a bunch of memorably British characters, as close as rock will ever come to Joyce's The Dubliners.

 

[Pranzo Oltranzista]

I don't think The White Album has any atmosphere at all--the various songs sound like sneak previews of four solo careers.

Maybe that's exactly it. It feels like an explosion in different directions, genres, signatures, but all connected at the roots (maybe in part because of the underproduction, maybe in part because they were all really starting from the same point). If you don't consider Sgt Pepper, I think the White Album is the easiest to recognize, you just know instantly that song, that sound, is from the White one. I really understand that some might consider the whole thing a confusing mess, but it is oh so timely, the perfect album for 1968.

 

[Shareefruck]

I keep flip-flopping on The White Album. Sometimes it does feel like a liberating buffet of variety, and sometimes that feels like a BS "The Beatles can do no wrong" excuse for its flaws and bloatedness.

The Esher demos and the Anthology versions of the White Album improve a lot of the songs.

Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da Is such a lame song but I really love the Anthology version.

Have you heard the 50th Anniversary remix version of The Esher Demos? It gave me a whole new appreciation for The White Album's material-- sounds crisp and something about that primitively messy overdub sounds really charming to me. Wish this one was on the White Album.

 

[JohnC]

I keep flip-flopping on The White Album. Sometimes it does feel like a liberating buffet of variety, and sometimes that feels like a BS "The Beatles can do no wrong" excuse for its flaws and bloatedness.

Have you heard the 50th Anniversary remix version of The Esher Demos? It gave me a whole new appreciation for The White Album's material-- sounds crisp and something about that primitively messy overdub sounds really charming to me. Wish this one was on the White Album.

Yes! No disrespect to Clapton, but I sometimes find myself enjoying the Esher version of While My Guitar Gently Weeps more than the album version.

I really do like plenty of tracks on the album, but there’s a lot that could’ve been chopped away IMO.

 

[WetcoastOrca]

Sgt. Pepper : song by song Revolver is better but Sgt. Pepper has that atmosphere which is so unique.The best songs sound amazing.

It's a shame Penny Lane and Strawberry fields forever weren't included on the record.



in my case my prefrence is precisely toward the middle: 66-67, that's when the magic happened.

Yep. George Martin admitted that was a big mistake. Could have been an even greater album. It’s still my choice though as their best with Revolver second.
There’s just something about Sgt. Pepper that impacted me the way no other album has when I first listened to it. I agree Revolver is probably technically better but Pepper takes me to a magical place every time I listen to it and sends me back to the first times I heard it.

 

[Oxbow Lakes]

I consider all of their albums from Help to Abbey Road great, with the exception of Sgt. Peppers which hasn’t just clicked with me… ever, tbh. Still has one of those all-time great closers, though!

I’d pick Abbey Road as my favorite of theirs, with Revolver right behind it. Help!, Rubber Soul and White Album are all pretty even, with the latter having obviously some serious fillers but also sporting some grade A highlights.

Just for laughs, my top-10 tracks of theirs (WARNING: boring, cliched and safe choices ahead):

1. Tomorrow Never Knows
2. A Day in the Life
3. Happiness Is a Warm Gun
4. Martha, My Dear
5. Here Comes the Sun
6. Taxman
7. Ticket to Ride
8. I Am the Walrus
9. Come Together
10. In My Life

 

[Mikeaveli]

Excuse the massive post lol. This thread had me re-listening to a bunch of Beatles tracks. There are so many great ones in their discography that it was very hard to narrow it down to only 25 favourites.

10/10:
Revolver

9/10:
Rubber Soul
Magical Mystery Tour

8/10:
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
Abbey Road

7/10:
Help!
The Beatles

6/10:
Please Please Me
Let It Be

4/10:
A Hard Day's Night
With the Beatles

3/10:
Beatles for Sale

My 25 favourite tracks (in no particular order):
She Said She Said
Taxman
Here, There and Everywhere
Tomorrow Never Knows
Strawberry Fields Forever
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds
Penny Lane
If I Needed Someone
I'm Only Sleeping
Rain
Girl
Glass Onion
Something
Doctor Robert
While My Guitar Gently Weeps
You Won't See Me
Blue Jay Way
Your Mother Should Know
I Am The Walrus
With a Little Help From My Friends
You Never Give Me Your Money
Happiness is a Warm Gun
You Can't Do That (Anthology 1 version)
Help! (Anthology 2 version)
Ticket to Ride (Anthology 2 version)

 

[Gordon Lightfoot]

Revolver
Abbey Road
A Hard Day's Night

Those are my top 3.