Board 8 > Rank the Tracks Week 51: The Beatles' Rubber Soul (+ Bloc Party results)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Previous results can be seen here:
https://board8.fandom.com/wiki/Rank_the_Tracks

The rules:
1. Listen to the album in full
2. Rank every track on the album
3. For the results, there will be a curve at the top of each list; two additional points between #1 and #2, and one additional point for the next two ranks. This way, the songs that really stick out to someone get an edge that is not immediately negated by someone else putting it lower. In the case of Demon Days, someone's 15th track will get 1 point, 14th 2 points, 4th 12 points, 3rd 14 points, 2nd 16 points, and 1st 19 points. For albums with greater than 15 tracks, everything ranked below #15 will be given 0 points and the scale for the top 15 will be the same as a 15-track album. For albums with more than 20 tracks, you only have to list your top 15 (with 16-20, I still like having the average rank listed)
4. If you want to include comments for individual songs, I will compile them in the results
5. The results will be posted at the beginning of the next topic
6. The deadline to vote is Sunday, February 27 at 8:00 AM EST - though if you are for whatever reason listening to the album around that time, just say so in the topic and I can delay a bit
7. You can sign up to be added to the user cycle - the next person on the list will choose 3 albums which the other users will vote on for the next topic.
7a. To ensure people are being given an actual choice, the three nominated albums must be by different artists. You can otherwise stick to a similar sound or era.
7b. The tiebreaker for these polls will be whichever is listed first in the poll options - make sure to deliver the results in order of your own preference (which will hopefully have the added benefit of influencing people toward your first choice if they can't decide).

The Beatles - Rubber Soul track list:
1. Drive My Car
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. You Won't See Me
4. Nowhere Man
5. Think For Yourself
6. The Word
7. Michelle
8. What Goes On
9. Girl
10. I'm Looking Through You
11. In My Life
12. Wait
13. If I Needed Someone
14. Run for Your Life

User Cycle:
2/27: neonreaper (Opeth - Damnation)
3/6: Great_Paul (System of a Down - Toxicity)
3/13: jcgamer107
3/20: ChichiriMuyo
3/27: ChainLTTP
4/3: BlueCrystalTear
4/10: MetalmindStats
4/17: HBJDubs
4/24: TheArkOfTurus
5/1: Snake5555555555
5/8: Jesse_Custer
5/15: ZaziGuado
5/22: firefdr
5/29: SpikeSetsFire
6/5: Johnbobb
6/12: VeryInsane
6/19: CasanovaZelos
6/26: Seanchan
7/3: Giggsalot
7/10: RyoCaliente
7/17: darkx

Bloc Party's Silent Alarm results

The participants sorted by deviation from final results:
BlueCrystalTear (20)
Mr Lasastryke (26)
VeryInsane (30)
StartTheMachine (40)
ChichiriMuyo (40)
RyoCaliente (42)
Seanchan (44)
Raetsel_Lapin (52)
CasanovaZelos (58)
Johnbobb (60)
MetalmindStats (66)
HBJDubs (80)

General Album Comments

CasanovaZelos: This is an album I didn't pay too much attention to when I first heard it a decade back, but I realize now that every track here is pretty strong.

RyoCaliente: Anyways, I love this album. It's just a good time, as there isn't really a dull/weak track on here. Although as mentioned with the nomination, I am blinded by nostalgia for it!

Seanchan: Did a first listen of this today. It all sounded pretty good but definitely going to need some more listens. At a certain point it all glommed together in a mix of British vocals and guitar riffs.
...
Second listen done. This is a very enjoyable album! But holy crap does my preliminary seems completely arbitrary. It's just hard to rank these songs.
...
There's a list of 14 songs from Silent Alarm above. This might be one of the most arbitrary lists I've ever submitted, and it's not from a lack of listening to the album. As I said in my prior listens, I think this is a really great album overall. I just think this list might be very different after a 4th or 6th or 10th listen. There's literally not a bad song on this album!

ZaziGuado: I've listened to this album a few times, but it was over ten years ago. I almost completed a full listen for this topic, but other stuff got in the way. I won't manage to get a ranking in, but I would have Blue Light top 3 so I know I would dissent from the norm big time there. Also at the top would be the three big singles in Helicopter, This Modern Love, and Banquet. Everything else kind of blends together for me. I wish I liked this album more. They are definitely a "like the singles but don't stray too far from that" kind of band for me.

BlueCrystalTear: First listen: tbh this wasn't really my thing. Was never really into these kinds of vocalists back in the day. I really enjoyed "Blue Light" but many of the others felt interchangeable. Did enjoy the guitar on "Little Thoughts" quite a bit - and tended to enjoy tracks more when they focused on instrumentation as opposed to the vocal.

Second listen: This grew on me considerably. I dont LOVE it, but I do like it. And I feel I underrated Like Eating Glass my first time. My top two and bottom two were still the same, and the ones to round out the top 3 and bottom 3 are also starting to become obvious, but everything else is very much a blur and I cant decide which goes where because of how redundant they are. This includes the singles.

Third listen: I now realize it's the punch of the drums in the opener that makes me like it more each time. The rest of the songs still are relatively interchangeable, aside from my top two and bottom two. This is just one of those albums that's too hard to rank. Too many songs are too interchangeable. But in the end, I'm glad I got to listen to it the three necessary times. This wasn't too bad in the end, but it's not necessarily something I see myself going back to.

StartTheMachine: Incredible album that had a pretty profound impact on 18 year old me. I don't think it would be a top 5 all-time album for me anymore, but certainly top 50 or top 25. Too much love for this record. That said, the older I get, the more I actually think A Weekend in the City is better and Bloc Party's finest work. Took me a while to finally admit that, but that opinion has been cemented for a few years now.

An album as remarkably consistent as this is really hard to rank. I will say that those top 4 are in their own league but everything else is basically negligible ranking-wise. I want to comment on every track, but I'm about to go to work so will have to skim for now. This Modern Love and Blue Light flip flopped a couple times for the top spot, but I think Blue Light holds the most personal meaning for me of any song here. (Won't lie that seeing the low rankings also gave me a vitriol reaction that likely contributed to the flip flop). Positive Tension was probably younger me's favorite on the record and still explodes in glory. Helicopter is great despite the low ranking, but I've always thought it was highly overrated and one of the weakest songs here. The riff does slap, but it's also lyrically really boring, and this album has some damn good lyrics throughout.

Also, Little Thoughts was a bonus track on the Deluxe Edition re-release. However, it makes no sense to include it but not Two More Years which was also on the same re-release (and is way better).

Mr Lasastryke: Very good album and one of the pioneering albums of the indie rock explosion of the zeroes, along with Franz Ferdinand's self-titled debut. Comparing Silent Alarm to albums by other indie rock bands, it sounds fairly unique. This is partially because Matt Tong is a far more competent drummer than many other indie rock drummers, and also because this is actually a more ambitious and diverse album than some people give it credit for (particularly the reviewer at Pitchfork). Bloc Party switches from soundscapes ("Blue Light") to multi-layered vocal rock ("This Modern Love") to ambient ("So Here We Are") to hard rock ("Plans" - nice use of the dual guitars) to shoegazing ("Compliments"). "Like Eating Glass" and "Banquet" are 10/10 songs for me. I don't care for the bottom three songs and my ranking of those is somewhat arbitrary.

For the record, "Two More Years" would be #8 on this list.

ChichiriMuyo: This was an enjoyable album. There were only a couple of true standouts for me, but in the end I did listen to this album more times than any album I've ranked so far. I would be surprised that I never heard this album before, but most of the 2000s was a black hole for new music for me (unless it was trance/house/eurobeat stuff). This sounded a lot like the stuff I had been listening to five years before it came out, and I think maybe it just took them too long to break out. In fact, with how fickle the music industry is, it's a surprise they made it when they did. Well worth a listen.

Johnbobb: Bloc Party drinking game: For each song on the album, skip ahead to a random spot and listen to the first lyric you hear. If it repeats that lyric again in the next 10 seconds, take a shot. If you're still conscious by the end of the album, you win! There's a difference between repetition for emphasis and repetition for whatever this is, but most songs on the album sound pretty much the same and most songs themselves sound about the same throughout, just repeating the same notes and lyrics over and over until they've worn themselves out and move on to the next song. I wasn't a fan.

Silent Alarm track ranking

14. She's Hearing Voices (Track #6)
Score: 59 (Average Rank: 10.08/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Seanchan, HBJDubs, MetalmindStats (#6)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin, VeryInsane, Johnbobb (#13)

RyoCaliente: This is one a lot of people are generally down on, but I think it's very interesting musically and nothing beats shouting RED PILL BLUE PILL MILK OF AMNESIA

13. The Price of Gasoline (Track #9)
Score: 63 (Average Rank: 9.75/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#4)
Biggest Detractor(s): Mr Lasastryke (#14)

RyoCaliente: Love the march/stamp energy this one has.

12. Plans (Track #13)
Score: 73 (Average Rank: 9.25/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin, HBJDubs (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan, StartTheMachine, MetalmindStats (#13)

RyoCaliente: I love this one for the Tower imagery and because the song is kinda about me (unfortunately?).

11. Positive Tension (Track #3)
Score: 74 (Average Rank: 9.25/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente, Raetsel_Lapin, BlueCrystalTear, HBJDubs (#14)

RyoCaliente: A surprise to me! I like this song, and I used to like it way more, but this song is really just building up to "fuckin' useless" and the parts before it aren't that interesting. Bloc Party do this thing better with Uniform and Better Than Heaven.

10. Little Thoughts (Track #10)
Score: 78 (Average Rank: 8.58/14)
Biggest Fan(s): CasanovaZelos (#3)
Biggest Detractor(s): StartTheMachine, MetalmindStats (#14)

RyoCaliente: Had to dig through my own files to grab this one as this one doesn't exist on my Spotify. I do like Little Thoughts, but I don't feel it does anything extraordinary.

9. The Pioneers (Track #8)
Score: 82 (Average Rank: 8.5/14)
Biggest Fan(s): MetalmindStats (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): VeryInsane (#14)

RyoCaliente: Has a great, frenetic energy, and the final verse is so good.

8. Compliment (Track #14)
Score: 83 (Average Rank: 8.42/14)
Biggest Fan(s): HBJDubs (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): CasanovaZelos, ChichiriMuyo (#14)

RyoCaliente: Probably the weakest BP album ender (or We Are Not Good People), I do still enjoy this song a lot. The lethargic energy really fits the subject matter, but the song doesn't get boring to me. The hidden track is a bit unnecessary though imo.

7. Luno (Track #12)
Score: 95 (Average Rank: 7.5/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Johnbobb, MetalmindStats (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): RyoCaliente, HBJDubs, Mr Lasastryke (#12)

RyoCaliente: Kinda the same sentiment as Little Thoughts. It's a great rocking song, but it doesn't stand out too much to me.

6. Helicopter (Track #2)
Score: 103 (Average Rank: 6.58/14)
Biggest Fan(s): CasanovaZelos (#2)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs (#13)

RyoCaliente: My love for Helicopter has waned over the years. It was definitely my favourite ten+ years ago, and it's still a great, fun, rockin' song, but I definitely prefer others over it.

5. Blue Light (Track #5)
Score: 111 (Average Rank: 6.92/14)
Biggest Fan(s): BlueCrystalTear, StartTheMachine, ChichiriMuyo (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Seanchan, Johnbobb (#14)

RyoCaliente: It truly pains me to rank Blue Light so low, because I LOVE IT and it's such a lovely, tender track. It might have been my first favorite when I listened to Silent Alarm for the first time.

4. So Were We Are (Track #11)
Score: 117 (Average Rank: 5.75/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): MetalmindStats (#12)

RyoCaliente: "I figured it out" is a pure goosebumps moment.

3. Like Eating Glass (Track #1)
Score: 128 (Average Rank: 5/14)
Biggest Fan(s): Mr Lasastryke (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): Raetsel_Lapin (#11)

RyoCaliente: This one definitely grew on me, but I love the sounds at the beginning, the imagery in the lyrics,... a great intro to the album, which Bloc Party usually does well.

2. Banquet (Track #4)
Score: 137 (Average Rank: 4.92/14)
Biggest Fan(s): CasanovaZelos, VeryInsane (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): HBJDubs, MetalmindStats (#11)

RyoCaliente: This is such a great, fun song to listen to.

1. This Modern Love (Track #7)
Score: 141 (Average Rank: 4.5/14)
Biggest Fan(s): RyoCaliente, Seanchan (#1)
Biggest Detractor(s): CasanovaZelos (#12)

RyoCaliente: I started every workday last year listening to this song. I think it's really sweet and musically, I love the explosion at the end before the final questions when it slows down again.

I don't know anything about the three albums jcgamer chose for this week, other than a vague memory of my ex-spouse being into Hawaii Part II. The first one is obscure enough to not even have a RYM page and jcgamer noted "this is part spoken word and has songs where the artist sang lyrics over existing music, let me know if it doesn't qualify."

Hopefully jcgamer will provide some context for these choices.

Blue Light being the most polarizing is interesting to me, because I loved it.

Tagging this. Also: When do you want me to get my choices to you for 4/3? I have no idea which way I'm going quite yet...

BlueCrystalTear posted...

Blue Light being the most polarizing is interesting to me, because I loved it.

Tagging this. Also: When do you want me to get my choices to you for 4/3? I have no idea which way I'm going quite yet...

I shoot a PM (...if I remember) when I put these topics up. So, I will be messaging ChichiriMuyo soon, meaning you have two weeks.

I have created a topic for the next round of Rank the Albums:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/8-gamefaqs-contests/79907429

This is the first artist to repeat on our list right

LiquidOshawott posted...

This is the first artist to repeat on our list right

Yep! 2 of darkx's 3 choices were repeat artists.

Rubber Soul

1. Im Looking Through You
2. Drive My Car
3. Michelle
4. In My Life
5. What Goes On
6. Nowhere Man
7. Norwegian Wood
8. Run For Your Life
9. If I Needed Someone
10. Think For Yourself
11. The Word
12. You Wont See Me
13. Wait
14. Girl

Im Looking Through You
Very catchy song. I like that the song ebbs and flows like an argument would. It feels like a rational conversation until it descends into chaos with the heavier, louder instruments. Appropriate since Paul wrote this in regards to growing apart from Jane Asher, his girlfriend at the time.

Drive My Car
Such a fun song. Very good way to start an album and a good jam song. Paul and James Corbin looked like they were having a blast jamming out to this in their Carpool Karaoke segment.

Michelle
Nifty, catchy little song about Paul trying to get with a chick who cant understand him very well. The held I love you note is silky smooth.

In My Life
Perhaps their prettiest, most emotional song.

What Goes On
Extremely underrated Ringo jam. His voice lends itself well to light country fare (even if Act Naturally kinda sucks as a song). This is probably my favorite Beatles song of his.

Nowhere Man
Killer guitar riffs and nice harmonies with the lads. Particularly, this song sounded really good in theaters when I saw the Yellow Submarine movie.

Norwegian Wood
Lovely jam about John setting some chicks house on fire. I enjoy the songs where Georges interest in Middle Eastern culture influences the sound.

Run For Your Life
The sequel to Norwegian Wood? Or perhaps the prequel? The famous tell a girl to run for her life and then burn down her house combo. Anyways, its a catchy jam.

If I Needed Someone
Solid George track. Definitely the beginnings of him coming out of his creative shell. The word nice keeps popping in my head. It isnt extraordinary, but its very nice and agreeable.

Think For Yourself
It stands out with its guitar riffs and verses, but the chorus is kinda boring.

The Word
The Beat Bugs made this song about the main characters being trapped and needing a password to get out. They tried to make it seem like a cute friendship angle because the bug that captured them just wanted to be friends, but it was totally a hostage situation. So whenever I hear this song , I think about kidnappings. Anyways, solid tune.

You Wont See Me
On a weaker album, this may have been a standout. On Rubber Soul, its below average. Very solid song, regardless.

Wait
A very ok song. I have nothing bad to say about it, but nothing overwhelmingly good either.

Girl
Dumb stoner song. Not a fan of this one. Only bad track on the album.

Bump

1. In My Life
2. Norwegian Wood
3. If I Needed Someone
4. Nowhere Man
5. Think For Yourself
6. Michelle
7. Run For Your Life
8. Wait
9. Girl
10. Im Looking Through You
11. The Word
12. Drive My Car
13. You Wont See Me
14. What Goes On

up

Did a listen to this today. Not a first listen since I've heard this one many times before.

I've decided a very key fact about this album. Don't read until after you've submitted your list. There are those who will put In My Life in the top spot, and then those who are wrong. ;)

I feel like The Beatles are one of the few artists I'd actually want to do a full album ranking on.

Yesss love that jcgamer nominated The Minute Hour

You can count on me for at least that much

The first true Beatles masterpiece album. Even if few of these are among my absolute favorites, the consistency here is extraordinary. The only thing holding it back is that I prefer their more experimental side, but this is the perfect parting shot for their traditional era.

In My Life (#804 all-time)
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (#1643)
Nowhere Man (#2335)
Drive My Car
Girl
You Won't See Me
Michelle
The Word
I'm Looking Through You
What Goes On
Think For Yourself
If I Needed Someone
Wait
Run for Your Life

In My Life
Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
Drive My Car
Nowhere Man
Michelle
You Won't See Me
I'm Looking Through You
Girl
If I Needed Someone
Wait
The Word
Think For Yourself
What Goes On
Run for Your Life

bump

Baby, you can bump my thread

1 I'm Looking Through You
2 Michelle
3 In My Life
4 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
5 Run for Your Life
6 You Won't See Me
7 Drive My Car
8 Girl
9 Think For Yourself
10 Nowhere Man
11 Wait
12 What Goes On
13 If I Needed Someone
14 The Word

1: In My Life
2: Nowhere Man
3: Norwegian Wood
4: Girl
5: I'm Looking Through You
6: Think For Yourself
7: Drive My Car
8: You Won't See Me
9: Wait
10: Run For Your Life
11: If I Needed Someone
12: Michelle
13: The Word
14: What Goes On

In which I listen to another Beatles album and realize theres a bunch of songs I like that make the ranking hard

In My Life
Norwegian Wood
Drive My Car
Nowhere Man
If I Needed Someone
Michelle
Think for Yourself
Girl
Im Looking Through You
What Goes On
Wait
You Wont See Me
Run for Your Life
The Word

Lennon really shines on this album

1. In My Life
2. Wait
3. You Won't See Me
4. I'm Looking Through You
5. Nowhere Man
6. Michelle
7. Drive My Car
8. Girl
9. What Goes On
10. If I Needed Someone
11. Run for Your Life
12. The Word
13. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
14. Think For Yourself

This is a pretty great Beatles album but it's no Abbey Road.

Critics really love their Beatles. This is 'only' the fifth highest Beatles album on Acclaimed Music, but it's also #32 of all-time.

CasanovaZelos posted...

Critics really love their Beatles. This is 'only' the fifth highest Beatles album on Acclaimed Music, but it's also #32 of all-time.

Funny thing, I've never really been much of a fan of either Sgt Peppers or the White Album. Not to say they both don't have some good songs, just that those 2 are the ones I very rarely put on when I want to hear The Beatles. And then I would always get confused about which one was Rubber Soul and which one was Revolver.

I also don't really get The White Album. Overly long, and some of those songs are straight up bad. I understand the idea of a 'here's everything we recorded this year, good and bad' album - but if they had whittled The White Album to a standard length with its best tracks, it likely would be the #1 album ever.

Does happen to still have the results from Future Nostalgia? I was doing some data cleanup and realized I'm missing the results for that one.

Seanchan posted...

Does happen to still have the results from Future Nostalgia? I was doing some data cleanup and realized I'm missing the results for that one.

What do you mean? It's on the wiki page, unless you are asking for something more specific. I still have excel files for all the weeks with the data.

CasanovaZelos posted...

What do you mean? It's on the wiki page, unless you are asking for something more specific. I still have excel files for all the weeks with the data.

AH, the wiki, I forgot about that! That gives me what I was looking for, thanks!

Last day to vote!

I'm not sure how to take the results for jcgamer's week poll. Very low amount of votes compared to previous weeks.

Leave it up to him if there's a tie?

CasanovaZelos posted...

Last day to vote!

I'm not sure how to take the results for jcgamer's week poll. Very low amount of votes compared to previous weeks.

I mean, probably no one knows anything about these albums/bands so they don't know how to vote? At least that's where I'm at. I think we've generally seen that people tend to gravitate towards the most well known option, even if it's not the top choice.

The third album in the poll was the only one I could find on Spotify. I was curious to check out the others if I could find them though, I tend to like jcs taste.

They're both easily available on Youtube.

Minute Hour - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBKhkiQ_1yU
PilotRedSun - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1mUiAjHzAI

I dont normally use YouTube to listen to music because I cant add it to my Spotify playlist and use on the go. But Ill check those out for a listen, thanks!

1. In My Life
2. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
3. Nowhere Man
4. Drive My Car
5. Wait
6. I'm Looking Through You
7. Michelle
8. If I Needed Someone
9. Think For Yourself
10. What Goes On
11. Girl
12. You Won't See Me
13. Run For Your Life
14. The Word

This album was pretty bad

My Dad got me hooked on The Beatles when I was just a toddler. He would play the red and blue compilation albums for me while my mom worked nights. I was only two years old and could anticipate and say with McCartney, "Get back, Loretta!" Unfortunately, these were on LPs, and not very convenient, particularly in the car. We had a vacation home in Vermont that we took frequent weekend trips to in both the winter and summer. We had just one Beatles cassette to listen to in the car. On one side was Rubber Soul (incidentally, the flip side had the Past Masters 2 compilation). We also had Rubber Soul on CD to listen to in the house pretty conveniently. As a result, I heard this album A LOT as a kid. You could say it was a gigantic influence on me becoming such a classic rock fan and a musician/singer myself. As I grew up and collected the rest of the Beatles' discography, this one never lost its place in my heart. It remains not only my favorite Beatles album but my favorite album of all time. Everything about it just feels perfect to me. It's the perfect blend of the Beatles' early years and middle years. The variety in the songs is to a perfect degree where they all feel different yet not so wildly different that the album starts to lose a bit of its cohesiveness (cough White Album). The running order of the program is perfect. I wouldn't change a thing on this album. I would estimate that I've listened to it front-to-back well over 200 times in my life (no pun intended) and will probably listen to it at least another 200 times before I die and never get even a little bit sick of it.

1. In My Life - This is my favorite Beatles track. It's just perfect. The harmonies are beautiful. Lennon's vocals are wonderful and always hit the mood perfectly, especially when he goes up to that scratchy falsetto note at the end. The beat is perfect. The piano solo (which, sorry to wreck the illusion, is actually George Martin playing at half speed and adding it to the master at double speed) is perfect. The lyrics are wonderfly simple yet deeply meaningful. When you remember that Lennon died so young and tragically, before most of us were even born, it just makes this one strike so differently (another great example of that in the Beatles' catalogue is We Can Work It Out). It's just a beautiful, beautiful song.

2. I'm Looking Through You - Another huge favorite of mine. It's easy to see why the kid in me really loved this one. The contrast between the soothing verses and the hard-hitting choruses is fantastic. Love those organ hits. Love the lyrics and the melody here. I recently saw a Youtube video that identifies this particular song as the sloppiest song the Beatles ever officially released, detailing all the mistakes and weird artifacts that made it into the final cut of the song, and while it's true that I can never unhear them now, they don't change my opinion of the song at all.

3. If I Needed Someone - This is the hidden gem of the album in my opinion, and judging by how often I see it pop up on lists of the most underrated/beat deep cut Beatles songs, I'm not the only one. The lyrics and music are the perfect blend of sad and hopeful. The electric guitar that penetrates the song gets me every time. The harmonies are haunting, especially on the "ah"s. Definitely one of George Harrison's best Beatles tracks.

4. Nowhere Man - That electric guitar solo! Phenomenal harmonies on this one, and I love how the repeting verses cycle back to end on verse 1. As much as I love Ticket to Ride and Yesterday, it's always pissed me off that they don't follow the same pattern.

5. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) - Such a fun song with a hilariously vile ending (Lennon said in an interview that there's no metaphore here - it's really about a guy who got played and "burned the fucking place to the ground"). Love the sitar here.

6. Drive My Car - I know a lot of people hate this one and I admit it's got some silly stuff in it but that lead guitar part is just SO GOOD!

7. Think For Yourself - Another underrated Harrison cut. The heaviest-sounding song on the album, it contrasts nicely with "If I Needed Someone" to show the two sides to George's Beatles songs. A really fun one to sing along to.

8. Run For Your Life - Perhaps the most sinister song that the Beatles ever officially released, and the one that John Lennon personally said he most regretted writing, it's got such a fun country beat to it that I can't help but love it. Another great guitar part and the "Na na na"s in the the refrain are such a catchy way to wrap things up as the song (and consequently the album) fades out.

9. Girl - A wistful, self-pitying ballad that amazingly doesn't take itself too seriously by throwing in some comedic sighs, exaggerated inhales, and silly backing vocals. I find it hard to find people that rate this song well. The Beatles die-hards tend to overrate it, while the casual/not fans usually underrate it.

10. You Won't See Me - Very cool piano part, and I've always loved the backing vocals here.

11. The Word - Out of all the tracks on here, this one feels like it most closesly resembles the material on their next album, Revolver. The syncopation in the vocals is the key to keeping this one fun.

12. What Goes On - It's definitely not great but Ringo is just charmingly goofy enough to make this one work. Sung by any other Beatle and it probably would have easily been last place on this album. See, haters be damned, his niche could do some songs some good.

13. Wait - Probably the most forgettable song on the album. Still alright though.

14. Michelle - Yeah I went there. The album's most famous track, and I put it in last. I dunno, but I never really cared for this one all that much. Perhaps it's because it's my Mom's name, so such a seductive song with her name isn't exactly my cup of tea. I did have fun trying to phonetically decipher the French lyrics as a kid. "Someday monkey won't play piano song" remains my favorite.

CasanovaZelos posted...

Critics really love their Beatles. This is 'only' the fifth highest Beatles album on Acclaimed Music, but it's also #32 of all-time.

On Rolling Stone's list in 2004, it was the #3 Beatles album and #5 overall (Sgt. Pepper was #1 and Revolver was #3).

Seanchan posted...

Funny thing, I've never really been much of a fan of either Sgt Peppers or the White Album. Not to say they both don't have some good songs, just that those 2 are the ones I very rarely put on when I want to hear The Beatles. And then I would always get confused about which one was Rubber Soul and which one was Revolver.

It's interesting, the "consensus" top 5 Beatles albums are pretty well-established as Sgt. Pepper, Abbey Road, Revolver, Rubber Soul, and the White Album, but it's rare to see someone with that exact top 5. Oftentimes you'll find someone really hates the White Album, or thinks Rubber Soul is overrated, or just really loves one of their early albums enough to throw it near the top. I actually do have that top 5.

I'd have to do a full re-listen to come up with an album ranking as I honestly can't remember which songs are on which album, especially for the earlier ones.

But Abbey Road is definitely #1. Magical Mystery Tour would be somewhere in my top 5. Rubber Soul and Revolver would be contenders. And I'd suspect likely 2 of the albums between Please Please Me and Rubber Soul would be there.

Magical Mystery Tour is weird. It's got a really high concentration of top 20ish Beatles songs, but it's also got some really bad filler. I'd put it at 6 or 7.

Seanchan posted...

Magical Mystery Tour would be somewhere in my top 5.

Same, it might even make my top 3 depending on the day.

Magical Mystery Tour sometimes gets left out of the conversation due to the nature of its release. It was originally intended to just be the film soundtrack, but then the American release added a bunch of unrelated singles. This was not the intent of the band at the time - so Hello Goodbye, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Baby You're a Rich Man, and All You Need is Love are essentially US bonus tracks. So, based on just the first six tracks as an EP, it's easily one of their weaker efforts. Combined with three of their biggest singles, it obviously sounds better. So, opinions wildly vary, but I think that depends on whether or not they are including the bonus tracks.

CasanovaZelos posted...

Magical Mystery Tour sometimes gets left out of the conversation due to the nature of its release. It was originally intended to just be the film soundtrack, but then the American release added a bunch of unrelated singles. This was not the intent of the band at the time - so Hello Goodbye, Strawberry Fields Forever, Penny Lane, Baby You're a Rich Man, and All You Need is Love are essentially US bonus tracks. So, based on just the first six tracks as an EP, it's easily one of their weaker efforts. Combined with three of their biggest singles, it obviously sounds better. So, opinions wildly vary, but I think that depends on whether or not they are including the bonus tracks.

The back half is much stronger than the front but I kinda still like many of those first 6 songs.

I'm kind of thinking the reason those albums are the "consensus" top 5 is partly because those are the 5 that don't have major discrepancies between the UK vs US releases. ...Also Let it Be and Yellow Submarine aren't very good so those are easy to remove from the conversation. As far as I could tell from the limited research I did back in the day, pre Rubber Soul is a bit of a mess with licensing and rights and whatnot.

At least the first side (original EP) of MMT still has my #2 Beatles song (I Am the Walrus).

1. In My Life
2. Drive My Car
3. Michelle
4. Think for Yourself
5. Nowhere Man
6. Wait
7. Run for Your Life [Its subject is surely suspect on its face, but its (to me) rollickingly satirical approach effectively juxtaposes against Rubber Soul's abundance of earnest, often pretty girl songs. That it drops at the end is thus very clever, and its simply catchy to boot.]
8. Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)
9. What Goes On
10. You Wont See Me
11. The Word
12. Im Looking Through You
13. If I Needed Someone
14. Girl

I quite preferred Abbey Road.