HELP!

Like their "A Hard Day`s Night" album, this album is divided between the songs included in the film ("Help!), tracks 1-7, in the Side One of the original L.P., and the songs not inluded in the film, tracks 8-14, in the Side Two of the original L.P.

For the last time in their albums they included covers, "Act Naturally" (sung by Ringo) and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" (sung by John). Both are good songs, IMO.

They also recorded two of George Harrison`s compositions, "I Need You" (with the use of a wah-wah pedal switched to the "volume controller position", making the guitar to sound a bit like a pedal steel guitar, IMO), and "You Like Me Too Much" (with humourous lyrics and good piano arrangements).

The other songs were composed by Lennon and McCartney. The song "Help!" has very good lyrics. "The Night Before" has a good melody. "You`ve Got to Hide Your Love Away" has lead vocals sung a la Bob Dylan by Lennon and good flutes arrangements. "Another Girl" is one of the weak songs in the album. "Ticket To Ride" has good drums by Ringo and good lyrics too. "It`s Only Love" is one of the best ballads that Lennon composed during his time with The Beatles, and it has a good guitar part played by Harrison. "Tell Me What You See" has a very "Latin American ballad" piano arrangement played by Paul. "I`ve Just Seen a Face" is an acoustic guitar balllad with good guitar melodies, but with a very "Country and Western Music " arrangement. "Yesterday" is a beautiful ballad, the most recorded song in the world and one of the best songs that Paul included in a Beatles´album, recorded with him on acoustic guitar and vocals plus a strings arrangement done by George Martin.

In this album, McCartney played some lead guitar parts (in "Antoher Girl" and "Ticket to Ride"). Both lead guitar parts are good, but IMO Harrison was a better lead guitarist than him, and I can`t see the reason why McCartney played these parts.

This album is more a "transitional album", IMO, showing some indications that the best of their work was going to come in their following albums, starting with their "Rubber Soul" album, which was also released in 1965.