WITH THE BEATLES

The Beatles continue their influence on the US and UK public with their sugary vocal harmonies and keen melodic pop sensibilities. So far they are doing without prog very well musically and commercially. The songs are bouncier and more vivid than those on their debut, which are just the characteristics of a catchy dance song. We don't see much of a change in their songwriting approach. For some reason they did drop the harmonica in the instrumentation, though. If you asked me whether I had any personal biggest favorites, there would be only one ? 'Hold Me Tight', which has those resonant high voices and sweet-and-sour melodies.

It looks like the arithmetic average of all the ratings on the list below is about three. My intuition tells me that I should focus on the present potential of the album, not the lack of thereof on certain numbers. There are, actually, plenty of strong moments on here. I was reasoning a bit and came to the conclusion that this puppy deserves 3.5 stars, but if I had to round it up, I would go in the favor of three stars since I have to take critical evaluation very seriously. It's not as good as their previous effort, but it's still good. Don't miss out on the strong songs here.

Ratings/comments (if you have to ask):

1. 'It Won't Be Long' - ****

1. 'All I've Got to Do' - ****

1. 'All My Loving' - ****

1. 'Don't Bother Me' - ****

1. 'Little Child' - ****

1. 'Till There Was You' - *

1. 'Please Mr. Postman' - * (It's noisy and not very melodic.)

1. 'Roll Over Beethoven' - * (So, it's a Chuck Berry number. What's in it for me, though, besides his classic opening trick?)

1. 'Hold Me Tight' - *****

1. 'You've Really Got a Hold on Me' - ****

1. 'I Wanna Be Your Man' - **

1. 'Devil in Her Heart' - **

1. 'Not a Second Time' - ****

1. 'Money' - *

Stamp: "I like it."