WITH THE BEATLES

The Beatles' second album, 'With the Beatles' picks up where the first album, 'Please Please Me', left off; rock 'n' roll, enthusiastic vocal group / guitar pop, girl-group/Brill building covers, etc.

It begins with 'It wont be long', a rocking song that is actually very heavy for 1963, almost sounds like hair-metal. Otherwise it is not all that good, but still a good, energetic song. It is followed by 'All I've got to do', a ballad which has such a beautiful melody, and is sung so passionately. It's followed by the exuberant 'All my loving', with gorgeous vocal harmonies and perfect melody, though similar to the Cliff Richard song 'Easily fall in love with you'. This is followed by George Harrison's first composition on an album 'Don't bother me', which is quite 'different' for 1963. Very downbeat and intriguing melody, semi-Eastern drum-beat.

The problem with this album, however, is that after the first four wonderful songs the quality takes a real nose-dive. 'Little Child' might feature a mouth-organ but it's an awful song, 'Please Mr. Postman' is a Motown cover that tries to be enthusiastic, but feels tired and obligatory. The same could be said for the Smokey Robinson cover on here, 'You've really got a hold on me'. John tries to put in the passion, but it's not there. The cover of 'Roll over Beethoven' feels flat. Towards the end, however, things pick up a bit, with a tender vocal from George, on 'Devil in her heart', and he adds some beautiful lead guitar to that one. That is followed by a fairly good original, 'Not a second time', and a smokin' hot rock 'n' roll cover, 'Money'. The best of the rest is probably the energetic 'Hold Me Tight'.

So, it basically follows in the footsteps of the first album, not quite as enthusiastic, but a couple of the songs push the boundaries a bit further.