RUBBER SOUL

"Rubber Soul" is the 6th full-length studio album by UK pop/rock act The Beatles. The album was released through Parlophone Records in December 1965. It´s the successor to "Help" from August 1965. Like all preceding albums by the band, the album was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London and was produced by George Martin.

The Beatles made a conscious attempt at creating an album where every track mattered, as opposed to the more regular routine in the late 50s/early 60s where most artists would concentrate on singles or a few standout album tracks, and many other tracks on an album were filler material. The Beatles were greatly influenced by the way Brian Wilson from the The Beach Boys composed and structured "The Beach Boys Today! (1965)", which was created with a similar mindset. Quality over quantity.

...and listening to "Rubber Soul" it is audible that there is more substance and depth to the material, than anything previously released by The Beatles. The music is still centered around catchy and beautiful vocal melodies and sophisticated vocal arrangements with harmonies and choirs being an important part of the sound, but the instrumental arrangements on "Rubber Soul" are more clever and detailed than before. All tracks are high quality material (maybe except for the Ringo Starr led "What Goes On". The man just doesn´t have a very interesting voice or delivery). Tracks like "Drive My Car", "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" (with added citar! A new thing in The Beatles universe), "Nowhere Man", "The Word", "In My Life", "If I Needed Someone" and the beautiful ballad "Michelle" are all standout tracks, but as mentioned almost every track on the album could be mentioned as a highlight.

There´s no arguing that "Rubber Soul" proved to be a game changer. Not only in the band´s own discography, but also on the pop/rock music scene as a whole. The idea to give every track on an album release the same attention and thereby create a more well rounded and whole listening experience influenced a lot of other artists to try and do something similar. It´s obvious on many subsequent 1966 and 1967 album releases that the album format suddenly had more focus, although singles were too still a very important release format in those years. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.