ABBEY ROAD

I've never been totally in awe of any of the Beatles works, so my rating for this is quite unusual for me. I feel that of all of the Beatles albums I've heard so far, ABBEY ROAD is the only one that has a ''timeless'' quality to it without sounding like a cluster of awkward filler tunes. A good batch of their best songs are right here.

''Here Comes the Sun'' is pure gold; an acoustic pop song with many progressive quirks, it really highlights Harrisons' songwriting skills that usually go unnoticed. If you take ''Octopus's Garden'' and ''Maxwell's Silver Hammer'' for what they're worth (goofy pop songs), neither aren't too bad. The mini-suite at the end sounds pretty corny for a while (''Mean Mr. Mustard'' for instance), but getting to ''The End'' and its guitar solos is worth it. The atmosphere of ''Sun King'', the synth in ''Because'' and the heavy jamming of ''I Want You'' should keep the progsters coming back.

The two hits at the beginning are a tad overplayed, especially ''Something'' which despite it being a Harrison piece, the song really sounds flat. ''Oh! Darling'' is an awful slow rocker that has no business here. Despite its flaws, ABBEY ROAD is a Beatles album worthy for a prog collection and maybe even a spin or two here and there.