YELLOW SUBMARINE

It really isn't. I can't stress that enough. This LP acts as the soundtrack to the animated film 'Yellow Submarine'. The actual Beatles had nothing to do with this film, and only guest star in it once. The Beatles donated some of their leftover studio tracks from other albums to the makers of the film, and these make up some of the tracks on the album. Side 2 is entirely devoted to George Martin's orchestral soundtrack to the film. It goes without saying that the orchestral music without the context of a film is really dull. All of these factors make 'Yellow Submarine' sound like a truly dire, worthless album, when compared to the other albums in The Beatles' catalogue. However, there are a couple of tracks on this disc that save the album from being lost in obscurity.

When I said leftover tracks, I meant four of them. There are just four tracks on this album totalling 15 mins that you wouldn't be able to hear anywhere else. These are all placed on Side 1, and are sandwiched between Yellow Submarine and All You Need Is Love.

Only A Northern Song is a psychedelic excuse for Harrison to spout some bizarre lyrics. Probably a good thing they left this off the other albums.

All Together Now is a fun children's song. As far as children's songs go, The Beatles have definitely done a lot worse!

Hey Bulldog is where it starts to get good. The main riff is superb, and the lyrics are great. The instrumental includes a brilliant guitar solo. I like everything about this song.

It's All Too Much is actually Harrison's second song here, but it's absolutely staggering. At 6:25, this is very long for a Beatles track indeed. In fact, this isn't the full version, which is about 2 minutes longer! This is an epic song, with a very rich sound. It's quite psychedelic in nature and very repetitive, but it's still awesome. You can see why The Beatles' longer tracks weren't commercial, but they were still brilliant. The song is played over a constant drone, which makes it even more fascinating and exciting. Ringo keeps a very strong beat here, and it's a shame that they never got to play this live, as it would make a brilliant live track.

I'm not even going to review the second side of this album, as I've only listened to it once, and frankly I wouldn't do it again, as I have better music to listen to. This was never going to be a great album, but tracks like Hey Bulldog and It's All Too Much are actually extremely worthwhile listens. However, the bulk of this album is very uninteresting, and those two songs just bring this album up to two stars.

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