Rubber Soul

Very clearly a transitional album for the band moving away from their simpler pop roots into a more experimental direction. Some of the songs here are all timers and some are just good to me. Probably my fifth favorite Beatles album. Favorites were Drive My Car, Norwegian Wood, You Won’t See Me, Michelle, and In My Life.

YSSSSS GOOD GOOD

4/5. It’s kind crazy how smoking weed with Bob Dylan irreversibly changed the course of the Beatles career. All jokes aside, Rubber Soul was a major turning point for the band. It marks the transition point where the Beatles shifted from the Boy-band they were on their first five albums to the album focused studio wizards they would be from this point forward.
And there’s a lot of great cuts on this one like “Norwegian Wood” which sees John Lennon trying to write a Dylan-esque song (something Dylan himself would respond to with the song “4th Time Around which shares an extremely similar vocal melody and progression.) or “Girl” which has this great section halfway through with chugging background vocals, or even “Michelle” which sees Paul getting a bit French with it which is cheesy in the best possible way. And of course there is “In My Life” which is one of the Beatles best songs.
My only real complaints with rubber soul actually lie with the two songs that bookend the album “Drive my car” at the start and “run for your life” at the end, neither of which I personally care for particularly much.

This was better than I remembered it being.

Fifth Beatles album, and just as solid as the majority of them that I've gotten.
Most of this album I'm not super familiar with, but basically everything is great. Still in kind of a transitional period between their older pop sound vs the sound that will come on albums like Sgt. Peppers or Abbey Road.

The songs that are more pop aren't quite catching me, but the evolutionary songs on this one like Nowhere Man (One of my favorite Beatles song) and In My Life are just fantastic. Of course, it still has a great pop hit in Drive My Car.

So far, my ranking of the Beatles albums I've gotten would go:

1) Abbey Road (5/5)
2) Rubber Soul (4/5)
3) Sgt. Peppers (4/5)
4) The Beatles (4/5)
5) With the Beatles (3/5)

Just two left. Guessing both of those get 4's just from my general knowledge and experience with them.

First Beatles album. This one feels rather "easy listening" which isn't a bad thing, but isn't great either. I prefer when they do more drugs and such. I feel like the songs are so short that they never get meaty enough for my liking, which I know isn't true for all of the Beatles stuff. There wasn't a bad song on here until the end when we decided to kill our bird. Fucks sake.

This is my favourite of the Beatles' early albums, and marks the point where they started to get more interesting. Some great songs, but some forgettable ones too. Not on par with Revolver or Abbey Road.

but of all these friends and lovers, there is no one compares with you

𝘙𝘶𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘭 marks the point where the Fab Four from the Mersey begin to move decisively beyond straightforward pop. The melodies are still immediate and tuneful, but the songwriting grows more introspective and subtly experimental. The shift is especially clear on 𝗡𝗼𝗿𝘄𝗲𝗴𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗪𝗼𝗼𝗱, where George Harrison introduces the sitar — still used almost like a guitar, yet already hinting at the band’s coming psychedelic turn.

The familiar love songs of their early years don’t disappear here; instead, they become more abstract and emotionally layered. 𝗚𝗶𝗿𝗹, 𝗠𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗲, and above all 𝗜𝗻 𝗠𝘆 𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 show a band rapidly expanding its expressive range. The latter stands as the album’s quiet masterpiece — concise, reflective, and deeply affecting.

𝘙𝘶𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘭 still carries traces of their pop origins, but this is where the Beatles truly begin to sound like a band in artistic transition.

A classic for me. More songs that were just ok than I remember, but a good amount of great songs.

Альбом з яким в мене трохи хіт енд міс ситуація. Хіти тут неперевершені, особливо In My Life - це одна з моїх улюблених пісень у бітлз. Але середина дуже ніяка, заповнена філером. Коротше хз, я б 3.5 поставив. Але чисто через ін май лайф дотягну тут до 4.

The first "great" Beatles album, but because of literally every other album that came after this, it's kinda their worst great album. Does that make sense?

their performance smooth, and their charm, wit and excitement run high”

The jangly pop of the early Beatles is replaced by thoughtful interesting song writing. Not as experimental as later albums but still playing with form and structure of 60s pop. Weirdly it’s that maturity of the songwriting that’s makes the album last, whereas this is why it suffered with some reviewers when it first came out.

“Think for yourself as I won’t be there with you …”

For example Nowhere man feels completely different, to what came before , but behind John’s baleful singing is still a tight 4 piece playing jangly pop.

The opening chords of Drive my car are an excellent way to start any album that just stays great all the way through - even “what goes on” does not drag it down a rating - just . it’s not Ringo’s vocals, which I quite like , but the simplicity of the country like pop is just out of place.

It's a great album, but it's not Abbey Road so it's not a 5.

4/5.

Oh no, it's The Beatles. I don't especially enjoy reviewing music by The Beatles, every opinion on every Beatles song has already been spoken and memorialized, and I don't subscribe to the idea that every Beatles album is flawless within it's context. Regardless of this, I *do* enjoy a lot of Beatles music, and I *do* really like Rubber Soul. In fact, I kind of think of this as the earliest Beatles album that I personally think is truly great. I also agree with the narrative is that this is a huge stepping stone for The Beatles, and that the leap in songwriting maturity, and emotional range here is vital for the band's development. But, I also don't think that necessarily resolves into a perfect album. Although it does give us a lot of really great, inventive pop songs with a lot of range. This album opens with Drive My Car and Norwegian Wood, which kind of epitomizes this. Both are fantastic pop songs: Drive My Car is tons of fun, and Norwegian Wood is sophisticated and melancholy. But The Beatles set a consistent tone and palette between them. Which doesn't feel particularly impressive in 2026, but if you listen to much of what The Beatles were doing before this, it becomes clear how important of a development this is. This album is full of studio tricks and detailed songwriting just like what we see on these songs. I love the really unique melodies on The Word. I love the soundscape work done done on Michelle, it's so simple but effective. I love how the arrangement expands on Girl. And the album is full of cool moments like these. At it's best they merge with the incredible pop songs here. But on occasion, I do think the Beatles haven't quite honed their songs enough to not be overshadowed by the production work. These songs are short, and some of them inevitably end up a little low impact. Which isn't to say that there are bad songs here, just some which aren't especially noteworthy in my opinion. And I think this compounds with how much The Beatles developed their art afterwards. As far as more hit or miss moments on here go, I'd particularly like to mention the closer, Run For Your Life. It's fine, but I have a number of problems. Firstly, I think the song here is not an especially inspired fusion of Elvis-style rock with The Beatles' sound. But this song is also well-known for consisting of John Lennon threatening to kill his significant other if he catches her cheat. It just comes across super weird. Is this to be taken at face value? If so, that's insane. Is this meant to be an acknowledgement of toxic masculinity through the medium of '50s rock n roll? If so, then it's weird hearing it from Lennon, given what we know about his history as a husband. It just doesn't make a ton of sense as a closer, and brings the album down a little in my opinion. Regardless, I do really enjoy the majority of this, even if The Beatles later achieved so much more. I see myself revisiting quite a bit here.

I'm quite familiar with this album. It's not my favorite Beatles album, but it's darn good.

obviously i adore the beatles but im unfortunately a michelle and drive my car hater… in my life and im looking through you and norwegian wood and nowhere man are such highs though it can’t be any lower

This is clearly a major turning point in The Beatles’ (and pop music’s) development. Despite this being their sixth album in three years, the number of ideas and quality of songwriting is only increasing and an edge has been gained. At this point you couldn’t swap their songs out for any other group without the complex and unique compositions losing something.

"He's a real nowhere man
Sitting in his nowhere land
Making all his nowhere plans for nobody"

The rise to true pop greatness truly begins here.

If The Beatles never made another album after Rubber Soul, they wouldn't have gone on to be (in)arguably the greatest band of all time, but we'd still remember them as one of the more important acts in the history of popular music. Tagged as their transition record, it's perhaps their most creative & subtle release. I adore its various nods to soul and Motown, especially on 'Nowhere Man' (my favorite Beatles song?), I venerate their vague and not always upstanding decorum, i.e., these aren't your run-of-the-mill hippies: 'I'm Looking Through You,' 'Run For Your Life.' In short, I'm thrilled that an album like it exists, one that you can throw on while putting together a brief dinner or listen to thoughtfully. +, Harrison shines: 'If I Needed Someone.'