Artist: The Beatles
Album: With The Beatles
Year: 1963
Well, I'll be damned, it only took 35 albums to get to The Beatles, probably most people's pick for the single most significant band in the history of popular music. Rarely has the universe aligned such that the most popular band of an era also been among the most innovative. I struggle to think of any other examples. Usually the "most popular" band just sucks. Womp womp.
Like most people with even a passing interest in popular music, I have gone through various Beatle "phases" throughout my lifetime. I own most of their albums already and listen to a few of them regularly. I have tended to prefer their later material, The White Album and Abbey Road in particular, but I find something to admire in all of their stuff.
Anyhow, With The Beatles. This is the Fab Four (John Lennon/Paul McCartney/George Harrison/Ringo Starr) in their pupa stage of development, a relatively straightforward rock-and-roll album. It's immediately obvious why this band became so popular. Their songs on this album are just ridiculously infectious and are delivered with tremendous enthusiasm. It's funny, this album is about half Beatle originals and half cover songs, and the originals absolutely kill the covers. And the covers are still really entertaining and interesting in their own right.
"It Won't Be Long" kicks things off with a punchy start, which leads into the more mellow "All I've Got to Do," which I believe to be one of the band's most underrated songs and is easily my favorite in this set. "All My Loving" was a huge hit for the band, understandably so. It's a heartfelt love song with an absurdly catchy hook. "Don't Bother Me" was George Harrison's first songwriting foray, I believe, and it's another fantastically melodic tune. I think a lot of The Who's early songs sound like this one. Or rather, I guess the early Who songs sound like it. Of the Lennon/McCartney originals, I'm not as enamored with "Little Child" or "Not a Second Time," but even these are at least memorable. The covers here ("You Really Got a Hold on Me," "Please Mr. Postman," "Roll Over Beethoven" to name a few) are good, but it's obvious the band works best with their own fare. For example, I think there's some similarity between "All I've Got to Do" and "You Really Got a Hold on Me" melodically, but "All I've Got to Do" just crushes it. And the latter song is legendary in its own right.
With The Beatles is not their best album, but I can see why it was included among the 1001. The songwriting is just leaps and bounds above their peers at the time, and while there's nothing here that's particularly earth-shattering musically or lyrically, it's clear they were onto something with this release. Note that I said onto something and not on something. That would come later.
Rating: Worth repeated listens
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