THE 50(ISH) GREATEST ALBUMS OF ALL TIME
Sneazing Through The Beatles
Alnum #27 : The Beatles — Revolver
The sun shines. The sky is a clear azure. The occasional cloud drifts lazily across — a welcome friend offering a moment of cooling shelter from the beating down of the equinoctial sunshine.
Home workers abandon their laptops, depart from their once-but-no-longer- temporary indoor ensconces and creep, blinking, into the warmth. A long lunch today, an early finish tomorrow. Enjoy it while it lasts.
All that is to say; it’s hot out, innit?
Summer, it seems, has finally reached Glasgow.
But wait, what’s this? A sniffly, snotty nose? Itchy eyes? Tissues, everywhere you look tissues? An uncontrollable and irrational rage? Why, looks like hay-fever is here as well. How nice of you to join us, you mostly annoying of allergies. Heaven forbid we might actually enjoy our summer. Oh no. We must be made to suffer for it.
Ah, well. Perhaps this week’s album will offer relief?
Well, it should do. According to Rolling Stone Revolver is the third greatest album of all time. And, to be fair, it is a near perfect album. As if it wasn’t enough to be jam-packed full of taught, lithe pop tracks it is technologically revolutionary too. How wonderful She Said is, what a work of art Eleanor Rigby is.
But wait, what’s this? Why, it’s a song about a submarine of course! Dumped in the middle of a near perfect experience just to wind you up.
Let’s face it — Yellow Submarine is the hay-fever of Revolver. It crops up just as you think you’re getting away with it and, just as you’ll still be sniffing 6 hours after you last went outside, you can guarantee the one song you’ll be singing as you brush your teeth starts “in the toooown, where I was born…”
In a way it’s admirable — it’s really the start of the Beatles starting their “we’ll record whatever we want and you’ll lap it up” phase. But it still marrs what is otherwise a pretty much perfect album
Ah well, nothing is perfect I suppose. You just have to make the most of it. Personally, I’m off to live on a yellow submarine — hopefully the sea air will clear my sinuses.
Thanks for reading — over the course of 2021, I’ll be reviewing 50(ish) of the greatest albums ever recorded. You can see the list here:
There is also a playlist featuring the best song from each album here.
