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20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
All in the best possible taste, 25 Oct 2006
'Rubber Soul' is the first Beatles album that works its magic without yelling at you. It sounds much more like a carefully-crafted gem than the representation of a live set. The band sound confident that they're taking rock music to a new level and from here on they don't need outside material. It serves partly as a wind-up for 'Revolver', the album it most resembles, but is a classic in its own right. You can admire the diversity and ingenuity here, but you can't allege gimmickry.
The stylistic progression includes the more solid rock approach of 'Drive My Car', subtle but intricate vocal arrangements as on 'You Won't See Me', the laughing effect of the fuzz guitar on 'Think For Yourself' and the smouldering, impassioned delivery of 'Girl'. There are many great songs too, as indicated by the extent to which other artists picked this album over. The Overlanders took 'Michelle' to number one and disappeared; The Truth put 'Girl' in the charts and followed suit; The Hollies made 'If I Needed Someone' another top ten hit; and Judy Collins brought out the full poignancy of 'In My Life'. Then of course there's John Lennon's legendary 'Norwegian Wood', a tale of the unexpected, as well as the instant 'Nowhere Man'.
The only false notes are perhaps 'What Goes On' on which Ringo reminds you that he drums better than he sings, while Lennon himself is on record as saying that he hated 'Run For Your Life'. Even so, it isn't a bad song. File 'Rubber Soul' under the usual - peerless.
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23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The first great Beatles album, 26 May 2007
1965 was the year that The Beatles began to be considered not just likeable entertainers, but something far more substantial. Geniuses in fact. The album 'Rubber Soul' was the start of a succession of brilliant Beatles albums.
'Rubber Soul', in fact, begins in unspectacular style, with 'Drive My Car', then 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)' takes the breath away, with John Lennon singing a, legend has it, autobiographical song. It's a beautiful Eastern/Western mix, helped by George Harrison's sitar. 'You Won't See Me' is a poignant love song sung by Paul McCartney, and with 'Nowhere Man' following, we are already well into a classic Beatles album. The latter has John in sensitive, insightful mood. A beautiful song.
'Think For Yourself' and 'The Word' are uptempo, the former being a George Harrison song. The latter has a John vocal, and marvellous harmonies from John, Paul, and George. Both pretty good. Better still is 'Michelle', which underlines a rapid maturing of The Beatles. They are becoming accomplished at this time in creating songs in various styles. In this instance, Paul sings in French, with accompanying music that makes it sound like a French folk song.
Beginning side 2 is 'What Goes On', which suits Ringo Starr's plaintive voice, and 'Girl' is in a similar style to 'Norwegian Wood', with John again supplying a moving vocal. 'I'm Looking Through You' is unusual in that it's Paul and not John delivering a barbed vocal. John then sings 'In My Life', which is the stand-out track on the album. Lyrically it's even deeper when reading the lyrics only, and the music, especially George Martin's baroque piano, is enchanting, and it was a song which had 1960s intellectuals drooling! George Harrison's 'If I Needed Someone' is pleasant, with a Byrds style ringing guitar sound (The Byrds were influencing The Beatles at this time, and vice versa). The catchy 'Run For Your Life' sees John end things, using that sometimes spiteful tongue to good effect.
'Rubber Soul' was the first Beatles album to really take popular music to another level, and there were a few more outstanding Beatles albums to follow!
- Paul Rance/booksmusicfilmstv.com.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
the forgotten masterpeice, 4 Sep 2006
In the shadow of "Sgt. Pepper...", "Revolver", "The White Album" and "Abbey Road", "Rubber Soul" is often forgotten. It is where The Beatles stopped writing songs about holding hands, and started to write real serious stuff. "Norweigian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" talks of adultary, and is the first song to contain a citar (courtisy of George). "In My Life" is a fantastic song of nostalgia, while "I'm looking through you" is about a love affair that's gone awry.
This is the first classic album, and diserves a place in everyone's collection (it inspired "Pet Sounds" for goodness sake!). This is a sign of what was to come.
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