485. The Beatles / Help! 1965. 4/5

This album doubled as the soundtrack to the film starring The Beatles, also coincidentally named “Help!”
As an album it probably rates as one of their best with consistency of tracks all the way through. It mixes the light and fluffy with the moody and sensitive, and does it in a way that doesn’t detract from the album.

Songs like “Act Naturally” and “Another Girl” and “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” start the album off on a light, marshmellowy note. There’s no genius songwriting here, but just a gentle carefree way to begin.
“I Need You” and “It’s Only Love” are just a little too slow and reflective for my taste (that’s what you get when you love heavy metal music I guess), and probably tie down the middle of the album a tad too much for my liking.

The second half of the album is where Help! really brings home the bacon. The tempo picks up with “The Night Before”, leading into the upbeat “Ticket to Ride”, McCartney’s wonderful and eternal “Yesterday”, the strains of “You’re Going to Lose That Girl” and “You’ve Got To Hide Your Love” and the lasting memory of the title track “Help!”

It is with this style of album that I believe The Beatles are at their best. On Help! they combine what I would term their ‘kiddie’ songs with their pop tunes. Some of their best ever songs can be found here. What is more, the album progresses without a hiccup, rolling along and flowing so well that before you know it, it’s over, and you feel the desire to listen to it all over again.

Rating: One of my Beatles favourites. 4/5.

469. The Beatles / A Hard Day's Night. 1964. 3.5/5

Incorporating the style that made The Beatles who they were, A Hard Day’s Night is one of their best albums, by combining the whimsical and wistful with the upbeat and poppy.

This album seems to get overlooked a bit in The Beatles catalogue, but not only does it have the well known singles that came from it, but the other songs that make up the album are all more than just filler as well.
As with most of their albums the songs are all shortish – radio bite-sized pieces for maximum exposure. The great benefit of this is that the album seems to flow along swiftly without getting bogged down anywhere. Of course, this doubles as the soundtrack to the movie of the same name that starred the band, but having not seen the film I couldn’t tell you whether it works well in that environment or not.

Favourites here include “A Hard Day’s Night”, “I Should Have Known Better”, “If I Fell”, “Can’t Buy Me Love” and “I’ll Be Back”.

Rating: One of my favourite Beatles albums. 3.5/5.

303. The Beatles / Beatles For Sale. 1964. 3.5/5

This is probably closer to the era of The Beatles that I enjoy - their early, catchy songs. They are short, radio-friendly tunes, and the album moves along briskly so that there is no chance of getting too bored with any particular song. the fact that they decided to go with so many of other people's songs instead of trusting their own writing skills is somewhat of a mystery however.

I guess there are reasons I enjoy these songs more (overall) that their later albums, and that comes from watching The Beatles cartoon that ran during the 1970's on Saturday morning TV, that had most of these songs entwined into each episode. It was a winning combination.

Favourites for me here include "No Reply", "I'm A Loser", "Baby's In Black", "I'll Follow The Sun" and "Eight Days A Week".

Rating: One of my favourites from The Beatles. 3.5/5

293. The Beatles / Abbey Road. 1969. 3.5/5

So – this is the number one rated album of all time. Well, I guess you have to have been alive when it was released to fully appreciate it then (I came along two weeks later…).

The Beatles are one of those bands that just about everyone has been exposed to, and thusly there must be a wide variety of opinions on their music and individual albums. I guess for me, like most of the Beatles albums, this album is divided by the very good from the just average. And in general, it is the songs that I have had more exposure to that I enjoy more. Probably why they became singles in the first place I guess.

Some of the songs I find really annoying though. “Oh! Darling” is like someone running their fingernails down a blackboard. “I Want You” drags on for nearly eight minutes, and does nothing for me whatsoever. “You Never Give Me Your Money” doesn’t inspire me at all, there just isn’t a hook there to grab me. OK – there is probably some sort of deeper message I’m supposed to have gotten with all of these songs, but on a superficial level I find them dead weight. It is difficult sometimes to compare them to those songs on the album that I do enjoy however, as they are all of the same beast.
Being a devoted follower of heavy metal perhaps clouds my ‘vision’ of this album. But none of us are the same are we? And though this is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, I’m afraid I don’t agree so readily.

Favourites for me on the album include usuals – “Come Together”, “Something” and “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer”

Rating: I think they did others that were better. 3.5 / 5

2. The Beatles / 1. 2000. 5/5.

This was a greatest hits collection released in 2000, containing 27 of their best songs. It may appear out of place amongst most of the rest of the albums that will be on here, but when you grow up with parents who grew up with The Beatles, you are going to be drawn along somewhat. It can't be denied that they were groundbreaking.
One of the things with The Beatles too, is that to say this is their definitive best of is open to personal opinion. There are songs missing for me, as I am sure there would be for most fans.

I have always enjoyed their pre-experimentation years more than their later, non-touring session albums. Pure rock and roll pop songs like "She Loves You", "Can't Buy Me Love", A Hard Day's Night", "Eight Days a Week" and "Help!" have generally been my favourite type by the band. This being said, two of my absolute favourite Beatles songs are "Eleanor Rigby" and "Penny Lane", which certainly don't fit into this category.

Everyone knows The Beatles. Everyone knows The Beatles songs. You may not love the band or their music, but you sure as hell know the words to most of their songs. It's almost a prerequisite in the modern music world. This collection does a pretty fair job of putting together their decade in one package.

Rating:  Love you every day girl, always on my mind  5/5