The Beatles: Ranked

 The Beatles are one of my favorite bands and I've listened to all of their albums a few times. I've taken to listening to The Beatles discography when I take a walk. So I thought I would give my own ranking of the thirteen main Beatles albums (so not including their singles collection). This may be controversial, we all have our favorite Beatles album. But these are subjective and fun. So here we go!

13. Yellow Submarine (1969)

This felt a little too easy. This album came out in conjunction with the Beatles movie of the same name and only featured four new Beatles songs. The second half is completely taken up by George Martin's score for the movie. It's not bad necessarily but it's not a Beatles album. Not to mention, all of the new songs on this album were pretty forgettable. I've probably listened to this album all of two times and don't usually go back to it. Not much else to say.

12. Beatles for Sale (1964)

Putting The Beatles early albums so low on this list feels disingenuous to what the albums are. "Beatles for Sale" isn't a bad album. But comparatively, it doesn't hold up as well as any other Beatles album. The Beatles were a blues/pop band in those days so this album is littered with covers of Carl Perkins and Chuck Berry along with some original songs like "Eight Days a Week". It's a perfectly good album but it doesn't blow you away either. 

11. With the Beatles (1963)

"With the Beatles" feels like it's in a similar boat. This one features less original songs (though it does feature "It Won't Be Long" which is a good song) and has way more covers. Harrison's "Roll Over Beethoven" is worth listening to. But again, this is a background music album, not one you sit with and dive into another place.

10. Please Please Me (1963)

The first ever Beatles album is actually a solid pop album. As long as you don't expect the genius of the later albums, The Beatles sound great here. Each Beatle gets a moment to shine on a song. "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Love Me Do" are great pop songs in their own right. The band also has some killer harmonies on the songs. The reason it's so far down though is that this album comes across as your average boy band playing instruments together. There's nothing particularly special about any of these songs (except maybe Lennon's version of "Twist and Shout"), at least beyond the fact that they're all about love. It's a good listen but pales in comparison to the later Beatles albums.

9. Let it Be (1970)

For some reason I could never get into this album and I've tried to figure out why. The Beatles were all but officially split and it shows in the singular way the songs present themselves. This feels more like a collection of Lennon, McCartney and Harrison's individual work before they went their own ways than a Beatles album. In this way, it doesn't really feel cohesive to any degree except in that it's very guitar driven compared to their more experimental albums before it. With all that said, there are still songs on this album that are interesting to listen to. "Get Back" and "Let it Be" (ironically both McCartney creations) feel like the best of this crop. The Harrison creations on this album are also pretty solid. Lennon's feel more hit and miss. The album feels like a pretty bitter ending to such a great band. To have an album that doesn't feel nearly as solid as their previous four or so to end their career feels like a disservice to their talent. But it is what it is and this album is still worth at least one listen.

8. Help! (1965)

This would be the last Beatles album with cover songs, which is a great thing because this album feels like Lennon and McCartney are getting their footing in writing exceptional songs. The highs of this album are so brilliant. "Yesterday", "Help!", "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" and "Ticket to Ride" feel like they would fit comfortably in any of the Beatles previous albums but have something that bridges the gap into their second half discography. Especially "Yesterday" and "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" feature some lyricism that we only get to see more of in the later Beatles albums. "Help!" feels like the album that culminates the previous four and eases us into the more brilliant albums to come later. My only complaint about the album is that, while there are way more highs in this album, there are still plenty of songs that end up getting lost in the shuffle, especially in the back half of the album. To me, it's an album that shows the Beatles' potential for the future more so than it being a indicator of their present potential.

7. Magical Mystery Tour (1967)

"Magical Mystery Tour" was originally released as an EP to the British public. When it was released in America, American producers included singles onto the back half of the album in order to make it a full-length LP. At first, the Beatles were disgruntled by this addition but it has since become part of their canon. Probably for the best. While the first half of this album certainly isn't bad at all, the only memorable song on that side is Lennon's "I Am the Walrus", which isn't exactly a great featured song. With the additions of "Hello, Goodbye", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "Penny Lane" and "All You Need is Love", this album is basically saved from being lower on this list. The back half of this album feels a bit like the "Sgt. Pepper..." rejects pile but surprisingly in a good way. This album as a whole feels like it's supposed to be the sequel to "Sgt. Pepper" in a lot of ways, especially in the feel of the songs. I think that might actually be my only gripe with it. Each Beatles album has a distinct feeling to it, and "Magical Mystery Tour" just seems to rely on the previous album's feeling to continue on. Granted, the songs in the second half are brilliant but they feel like they belong somewhere else. Combine that with the fact that the first half is largely forgettable and the reason "Magical Mystery Tour" isn't higher is pretty clear. However, I would say that this album deserves multiple listens for the second half alone.

6. A Hard Day's Night (1964)

The first Beatles album to feature songs entirely written by Lennon-McCartney feels like the first Beatles album with a consistent vibe throughout the whole album. The tone is set from the opening chords of "A Hard Day's Night" and continues into all of the songs that follow it. Harrison's use of one guitar through all of the songs makes all of the songs feel connected, even while they alternate between upbeat pop songs and slower ballads. While there aren't as many stand-out songs on this album, I feel that this is easily the best top-to-bottom album out of the first five Beatles albums, and probably better top-to-bottom than the previous three albums on this list. When I first was putting together this list, I legitimately thought I was going to have "Help!" as the best album of the first five. But as I looked at the track listings of both, I realized the songs on this album were far more memorable and cohesive on the whole. The only downside to this album would be that it's still a pop album through and through. You're not going to find sophisticated lyrics on this album. But I think that's ok for what this album is.

5. The White Album (1968)

This album is probably the most polarizing album in the Beatles discography. It's incredibly hard to pinpoint what place this album deserves in the overall Beatles canon. One part of this is how insanely long this album is. The Beatles put together their only double album in their career with thirty new songs. The problem is that it's unclear if all thirty needed to even be here. This album has incredible highs, some of the Beatles' absolute best. "Revolution 1", "Helter Skelter", "Dear Prudence", "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", "Blackbird", and "Happiness is a Warm Gun" are just some of the amazing songs collected here. And yet...this album also features "Piggies", "Rocky Raccoon" and "Everyone's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey". It's...odd. How do you accurately represent an album that has such a discrepancy in quality? And is that even an accurate description? For my part, I find this album to be pretty brilliant. The collection of amazing songs far outweighs the few odd ones. And if you can even see those odd ones as the Beatles experimenting with every creative impulse they had, well even those can have their own value. In fact, we're lucky that we're able to see that even the oddest of the Beatles far surpasses that of their peers. 

4. Abbey Road (1969)

The last album to be recorded when the Beatles were still a collective, this album feels like a much better send off for this amazing band. From the iconic bass opener of "Come Together" to the final chords of "The End", this feels like the Beatles squeezing out the best bits of themselves into one final album. This album features easily the best of Harrison's contributions to the band in "Something" and "Here Comes the Sun". I'd say the latter even stands as the representative song of the album. The back half of this album features a sixteen minute medley of songs that are interrelated to each other, the first time that the Beatles had done that. The soundscape of that medley remains consistent throughout and seems to even match the sunny day of the cover art. The first half of the album is a little more miscellaneous sounding but somehow still seems cohesive to me. And all of those songs are strong for what they are, whether they be comical or love songs. "Abbey Road" is a brilliant album. Most bands would kill to produce one album like this and yet I personally feel this isn't even the Beatles' best.

3. Rubber Soul (1965)

This album is my personal favorite for a lot of reasons. This album feels so cohesive over the fourteen songs. The folk rock and acoustic guitar aesthetic is featured in every song. Whenever I hear this album I get transported to a park, sitting outside under a tree on the grass; it just transports you to a specific place every time you hear it. The harmonies between Lennon, McCartney and Harrison feel the tightest here and are featured pretty often.  I also think that this is one of the few Beatles albums without a single weak song (mind you a weak Beatles song is still amazing but you get my point). It's top-to-bottom so good. There's really no outlier in terms of the tone of the album. Even the songs that use an electric guitar somehow feel stripped down and bare in the best way. This album was made to be listened to as an album rather than a collection of singles. It flows effortlessly from one song to another. I'd say the only weakness is maybe the last song, as the lyrics don't seem to match as well to the rest of the album. However, that's a really small gripe for an album that really kickstarted the innovation of the Beatles.

2. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)

When I first listened to this album, I remember feeling a bit underwhelmed. I'd heard so much about how this album was brilliant and one of the best albums ever made so I was expecting something almost larger than life. However, I've found that the albums I feel underwhelmed by on the first listen end up becoming some of my most appreciated albums on continued listens. I listened to this album for the first time in a while a few weeks ago and was immediately struck by how cohesive and innovative this album is. 

While Lennon and Starr believe that only the first two songs and "Sgt. Pepper Reprise" are connected, I'd take it a little farther. The songs on this album are not songs that the Beatles could've done outside of a space where they were pretending to be another band. In fact, this feels like an entirely different band than the band we saw on "Revolver" and definitely "Rubber Soul". The Beatles were almost entirely reliant on instruments they could play in their early days. Yet this album features synths, keyboards and brass instruments. I'd also say that, thematically, the mostly upbeat songs feel very different from the melancholy of "Revolver", the calm of "Rubber Soul" and the pop-centered "Help!". This is upbeat psychedelic rock. It almost feels like you're participating in a parade, where people and sounds flash by as you drink it all in as fast as you can. By the end of the CD, you feel like you've been on a journey with the Beatles, all leading into the brilliant "A Day in the Life". This album has so much replay value. You want to catch every single brilliant moment that is displayed on this album.

1. Revolver (1966)

I'm not sure if this is controversial or not. I would bet most would actually agree here. "Revolver" is just brilliant in every sense of the word, even more so than "Sgt. Pepper..." Some "Sgt. Pepper..." loving maniac is going to come out of the woodwork and fight me on that but it's the truth. By 1966, the Beatles were competing with the likes of Brian Wilson, Bob Dylan and Mick Jagger for musical superiority. Interestingly, this album was started around the time that "Pet Sounds" came out. The Beatles wanted to push themselves even further and decided that they were going to utilize as much new technology as they could to bolster their sound. The end product was a staggering soundscape over fourteen songs.

"Eleanor Rigby" utilized a full orchestra, "I'm Only Sleeping" featured the sound of a guitar played backwards, "Love You To" featured a sitar played by Harrison, "Got to Get You Into My Life" dabbles in brass instruments to support the drums and guitar of the band, "Yellow Submarine" featured the noise of chains and glass to mimic underwater sounds and Harrison's guitar work on most of the album is nothing short of amazing. The riffs featured in most of the songs connect Revolver together, with the few reprieves feeling themselves connected together.

The Beatles weren't content with creating music that could be listened to over and over again, they wanted more. This album pushed every limit on music at the time. They didn't care about being able to replicate the music on the stage, so they could go as far as they wanted with sounds, layering and technology. "Revolver" is one of the defining moments of rock music and music in general. Some of the practices still used in music today can be traced to this album. And to top it all off, the content of the songs was brilliant. "Revolver" is just perfect and deserves the top slot as the best album by one of the  most influential bands in music history.

What are your favorite Beatles albums? Tell me if you agree with my assessment!