WITH THE BEATLES

This is probably the weakest album by The Beatles ever. Their debut PLEASE PLEASE ME was released shortly before, and even that was better than WITH THE BEATLES. This is not prog at all, but even as a rock n' roll album, it's not great either. The main problem here is the covers. The Lennon/McCartney songs are all great early rock songs, but the covers are all of pretty lousy 50's songs. The best songs are IT WON'T BE LONG, ALL MY LOVING, and all the other Lennon/McCartney songs. The best overall song is the first IT WON'T BE LONG, which is a really great rock song that I listen to more than anything else on the album.

Basically, I skip a fair amount of the songs, and after my own cuts to this album, it's only like 18-20 minutes. Some hidden gems are in this mediocre album, but nothing really makes it worth a purchase for a prog fan.

3/5 for rock. 2/5 for prog.