Rubber Soul

This album feels so personal

One of those middling Beatles albums I never bothered to look at. Boy I wish I'd checked it out sooner! Just brilliant songs well made, the perfect blend of their early and late work

Altså, det er Beatles. Dem har jeg aldrig været så meget til i virkeligheden. Men det er da selvfølgelig meget godt alligevel

I min optik er det numre som "Norwegian Wood", der stadig holder i dag. Ikke sådan noget som "Drive My Car", det er fandme WACK

3.6

Ja, ga ik nu alweer precies hetzelfde zeggen als bij al die andere Beatles-albums? Ja! Dan moet je die er ook maar niet allemaal inzetten. Het is nou niet echt dat we een wezenlijk verschil horen tussen dit album en eerder materiaal. Het is hoogstens iets volwassener dan A hard day's night, en daarmee nog saaier.

Maar, daar ga ik weer. Het is gewoon weer hetzelfde trucje. Verlengde lettergrepen moeten alles oplossen:

"Say the woooooooooooord and-you'll-be-free."
En twee nummers later:
"What Goes ooooooooon in-your-heart?"

Ander muziekje erachter, maar wat betreft de zang precies hetzelfde. Speciaal voor een luistermaatje: Luister nou eens na de voorbeelden die ik aanhaal: dit heeft werkelijk niets met het verschil in uitspraak tussen Engels en Nederlands te maken.

Pas na dit album voegden ze ook eens wat anders toe aan hun arsenaal. Revolver en The white album zijn zoveel interessanter.

Great album. Very listenable. I don't have any nostalgia for the Beatles, not really getting into them until my late 20s, but this is easily one of their better albums.

The start of a run of classic albums that would completely redefine music in basically every way you can think of. Also just a really good album in its own right too. Several fantastic songs on this, some of which stand as some of the best songs that this band would ever release like Nowhere Man and In My Life. Could put this on whenever and probably have a good time listening to it.

My fave Beatles record probably

Great way to start the project. This is a Beatles album, and a very good one at that. Everyone is on top form on this album; the breakdowns on “Drive My Car” remind you that Ringo is a world class drummer, George’s guitar solo on “Nowhere Man” is surprisingly crisp, and John and Paul are John and Paul the whole time. There really isn’t a miss on this album and I’d happily listen to it again for every day of this project. Some songs feel a bit dated, but it’s Rubber Soul so that is easily disregarded.

A landmark album for The Beatles. I think this one stands out more if you listen to it within the context of their discography, because you can really hear how much this record departs from their previous work and begins their more experimental "later years" sound. I'll argue that the shift starts with "Help!" but this record made their growth undeniable; they weren't the mop-headed boys from Liverpool anymore.

The bass and the dumming alone make this album very good. Add to that the great melodies and it's a very solid album.

Favorite Songs: Drive My Car ; Girl ; In My Life

Front to back solid with some classics across its 50 min runtime

Always tough with a Beatles album to say it’s perfect because there’s always some bollocks on it somewhere. There’s a little here but also some out and out classics, so a 4!

Solid album, but I've never been a biggest fan when it comes to their Pre-Revolver catalogue.

Great album, though far from The Beatles' best. They were really starting to find their magic here though. That said, -1 star for the annoying stereo mix.

Favourite tracks: Norwegian Wood, In My Life, Girl, I'm Looking Through You

A pretty mixed album from the boys. It starts off strong enough, but loses it's luster partway through. The last track is very weird and I didn't much care for it. 3/5

One of my least favourite Beatles albums... still a 5 though. The existence of In My Life elevates it above most albums.

Pleasant but nothing captured me, which is pretty damning considering this is The Beatles of Beatle fame

Another Beatles album I started by psyching myself to rate it a 4 and quickly discovered I had no chance. Five stars. 

My initial case for a four starts with the execrable lyrics to “Run For Your Life,” which is the one Beatles song I would obliterate from existence if forced to choose. Yet musically it is still a good example of the early era and I love its jangly country side. 

Weirdly, I also grew up thinking of "Rubber Soul" as a transitional or filler album even though it is a favorite album of many people. That shaped some of how I listen to it... in the wrong mood I can think of "Girl" and "Michele" as cheesy gimmicks, "The Word" and "Think For Yourself" as needlessly didactic, and "In My Life" as insincere. I still rank it below (at least) Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, White Album, Abbey Road, and Help!

And yet. "Drive My Car" is peak red album Beatles. "If I Needed Someone" reveals the beauty of George's soul to the world. "Norwegian Wood" shows where they were headed. "Wait" is vastly underappreciated. "What Goes On" is such a good Ringo song. "I'm Looking Through You" is a transition from more simple love songs to complex relationship dynamics. And and and. 

And when you look it through any ONE of the genius tracks, the whole thing seems brilliant. How could four people be so brilliant and also have so much casual fun? "Rubber Soul" isn't a highly intentional work of art like "Revolver" or "Sgt. Pepper" or even "A Hard Day's Night." In many ways it's as spontaneous and authentic as "Please Please Me." I'll take that any day, even with John's barely sublimated bloodlust.

This is the first in a series of perfect or almost perfect albums by the Beatles. It all, really started here. These were the new Beatles, leaving the teenage craze and beat music behind, mixing pop and folk and psychedelic rock and Indian influences into iconic songs like "Norwegian Wood", "Nowhere Man", "Michelle", "Girl" and "In My Life". "Rubber Soul" foreshadows album masterpieces like "Revolver", "Sgt. Pepper", "The White Album" and "Abbey Road".

I’m practically at a 10.

The only reason I’m not definitively at a 10 is because “Run for Your Life” feels a bit petty / overly harsh as a closing track, especially coming off of the lovely trifecta of “In My Life”, “Wait”, & “If I Needed Someone”, all of which feel like tracks with a singular devotion towards love, which the Beatles preached about finding & sharing to the world on “The Word” just a bit earlier. It really feels like it goes against most of the album to that point, and while it’s not an especially bad track (quite good, honestly, even with the taboo lyricism), it just doesn’t thematically fit well as a closer, or on the album at all really.

That said, I totally hear why this is the first Beatles album with across-the-board critical praise: their melodies have improved, their songwriting added a lot of emotional depth, & their instrumentation is starting to move towards the bigger energy & bombast that would feel especially present on Sgt. Pepper’s. The jury is out, at least for me, on if Revolver has that energy present, since I haven’t heard it yet. That’s the last Beatles album we’ll get to as a group, and I really cannot wait to get it. I see no point in going track to track here, since everyone has analyzed all of these tracks up & down for 61 years. They still hold up perfectly, even with that much time between, and the list of influences that stem from this point onward feel apparent. “If I Needed Someone”, for example, feels like a La’s track, and you can make connections like this for most, if not all of the tracks here. Bob Dylan’s influence rubbed off on these guys, and with the harmonizations here, it’s no wonder the Beach Boys & Brian Wilson felt compelled to make something like Pet Sounds.

It’s ironic that an album that sharpened so much iron down the musical tree of influence is named after rubber, but I don’t think it’s a stretch to call this one of the most important albums ever made. Hence, a 10, even with that little snag at the end. I’m a broken record when it comes to my surprise at how much I’m appreciating the actual substance of the Beatles’ discography past the hit singles at this point, but they really have been that good. “Revolver” better be that damn good.