THE BEATLES [AKA: THE WHITE ALBUM]

"The Beatles" (known better as the "The White Album", which is how I will refer to it) is the 9th full-length studio album by UK pop/rock act The Beatles. The album was originally released as a double vinyl release featuring thirty tracks. The recording of the album, which took place at Abbey Road Studios in London with producer George Martin, was mared by the ego clashes of especially John Lennon and Paul McCartney (and to a lesser extent George Harrison). The atmosphere got so bad that Ringo Starr even left the band for a short period of time. After reconsidering his decision he did return though.

Many of the tracks featured on the album were almost recorded as little solo projects and there were fierce discussions as to which tracks were to be included on the album. The great variation in style and sound between tracks made the album a bit incoherent, and while it was generally well received some listeners found the album a bit confusing. There is for example a long way from the rather silly Caribbean music influenced "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da" to the 8:22 minutes long experimental sound collage of "Revolution 9".

The album contains some of the strongest material The Beatles ever released though. It features some psychadelic and rather weird tracks like "Glass Onion", "Wild Honey Pie", "The Continuing Story Of Bungalow Bill" and "Piggie"s, which are all really strong compositions, but tracks like "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Back In The U.S.S.R.", "Happiness Is A Warm Gun", "Dear Prudence", "Helter Skelter" (which to my ears is borderline heavy rock), and the beautiful closing track "Good Night" are also high quality tracks.

"The White Album" is upon conclusion a very ambitious project by The Beatles that features a few flaws (some fillers and a couple of sub par tracks. An example of the latter is the folky Ringo Starr led "Don't Pass Me By") but mostly excels in brilliant songwriting, an extremely well sounding production, and overall high level musicianship. The memorable and well written melodies are as always second to none. Untouchable...a 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.