Magical Mystery Tour: the best Beatles album
There is nothing like a good ol’ fashioned argument about what Beatles album is the best, and this could be restarted thanks to the news that the entire back catalogue will be re-released in September. Obviously, different people will have different tastes – some will like the straight up guitar pop of their first few albums (Please Please Me, With The Beatles) and some will like the experimental nature of their latter work that crossed many different genres (Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Abbey Road, The White Album). For me personally, their latter albums are easily their most triumphant, spawning some of my favourite Beatles songs. Blackbird, You Never Give Me Your Money, I Want You (She’s So Heavy) and A Day In The Life.
My favourite album though is not the expected choice. For me, their finest LP was something that I grew up listening to and shows the band at their most creative and their most tripped-out. Magical Mystery Tour wasn’t even meant to be a full-length album release. It was released originally as a double EP set before the record label decided to release it as one following is US release. It was also the soundtrack to their TV film of the same name, which has received mixed reviews in the past.
Where to start in terms of picking out the best songs? The title track is the only place to start as it opens the album with sheer gusto and fanfare. It also, in my opinion, manages to combine the best of both Beatles – straight up guitar pop mixed with experimental pop equals near-perfect pop music. From the end of that track, the next half an hour is a joyous and fun-filled listen.
I’ll pick out a few of my favourites. Fool On The Hill is wonderfully minimalist song that has an amazingly strong but effective woodwind instrument melody. Hello Goodbye is three and a half minutes of brash and explosive pop with one of my favourite Beatles refrains (“You say goodbye and I say hello”). Baby, You’re A Rich Man is similar in the sense that it has a brilliant melody that is head and shoulders against a musical backdrop that for the most part murmurs its way along other than the Indian-sounding instruments and the odd piano jingle here and there.
It finally ends with the hold-your-hands-together classic All You Need Is Love. The band have written some pretty good songs with universal messages in their career but to me this one stands out as their most triumphant. The lyrics are simple but highly effective with a powerful message, particular at the time of the release (1967 – a time when the Cold War showed no signs of stopping and the Vietnam War was still raging). Brian Epstein, who was the manager of the band at the time, said that “the nice thing about it is that it cannot be misinterpreted. It is a clear message saying that love is everything.”
So, in summary, it doesn’t matter whether or not the film was rubbish or not because the music is still great four decades on. Do you agree with my wildcard choice or am I completely insane? Feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts.
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Posted on April 15th, 2009 by Max
Filed under: Albums, Features
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