ABBEY ROAD

First of all, is there any prog on "Abbey Road'? No, but I don't care. Non-prog albums don't get added to receive low ratings. Secondly, I personally found this record to be quite problematic musically. There are, however, quite a slew of tracks that I like. 'Come Together' is the best pop-rock track I found on the album because it really benefits from the vocal delivery and the guitar work. 'Because' is a nearly-cathartic track that made a strong impression on me through the vocal delivery. At this point I just want to curse this band. My other favorite tracks are either childish ditties ('Maxwell's Silver Hammer', 'Octopus' Garden') or tight rockers ('Polythene Pam', 'The End'). Don't miss out on 'The End', which features one of George Harrison's best rock guitar moments that became instantly popular with me when I was in high school. Also, some of you might enjoy the album version of George's 'Something', although I would highly recommend the "under-produced" version, the first version of the song that I have heard and which demonstrates Harrison the Acoustic Rocker at his best.

Now let's discuss other popular tracks on the record. I like 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' for the organ work and the riff, but then the band threatens to go on and on and on, picking up noise as if the boys were trying to create a sense of drama. The riff isn't convincing enough to be dramatic, and neither is the noise. I feel very immune to this kind of "drama". 'Here Comes the Sun' is too simple and happy for me, and it has a very limited set of powerful musical ideas. As for the side two medley, well, I'm not into medleys. I do not support the whole idea of musical incoherence, of stitching together different tracks or musical bits and treating it as a whole.

Allow me to add that there is a hidden track on the album, 'Her Majesty', which I personally found quite spooky with the sudden change of keys that sound a bit microtonal to each other.

Ratings/comments (if you have to ask):

1. 'Come Together' - ***** ; 2. 'Something' - ** ; 3. 'Maxwell's Silver Hammer' - **** ; 4. 'Oh! Darling' - *** ; 5. 'Octopus' Garden' - **** ; 6. 'I Want You (She's So Heavy)' - ** ; 7. 'Here Comes the Sun' - * ; 8. 'Because' - ***** ; 9. 'You Never Give Me Your Money' - ** ; 10. 'Sun King' - *** ; 11. 'Mean Mr. Mustard' - ** ; 12. 'Polythene Pam' - *** ; 13. 'She Came in Through the Bathroom Window' - * ; 14. 'Golden Slumbers' - **** ; 15. 'Carry That Weight' - *** ; 16. 'The End' - **** ; 17. 'Her Majesty' - ** ;

Stamp: "Try it yourself" (as in "I think it's worse than lots of people say it is.")