722 The Beatles - Something New (1964)

US Studio/Compilation Album - 60s Pop

About the Act:

Do I really need to tell you who The Beatles were? Well, I suppose it is theoretically possible that aliens from the planet Xzog will get hold of a copy of this series of reviews 245 years into the future, and won't know about Earth's most popular pop band ever, so if so, Felicitous Rgnygings to you, and here we go.

Way back in 1960, in the dank, rain-kissed streets of Liverpool, four Quarrymen known as John, Paul, George and Ringo formed a band to play a kind of guitar-based pop that famously didn't get signed to some record label or other. They got signed to a different one, played perfectly-crafted pop and won the hearts of every teenage girl in the world, and popularised mop-top haircuts. They went to America, and America screamed at them, apparently not in a bad way. They claimed to be bigger than God at one point, whih made some people laugh and some other people angry. As the 60 evolved from crafted pop ballads into psychedelic hippie music and more considered rock, so did they, discovering coloured clothes, sitars, eastern religion and peace and love, man, peace and love, and maybe some stimulating substances like tea. Their music reflected this and they sold even more records, hitting some kind of mega-stratosphere of fame, and explosive creativity, but finding it harder and harder to get on with each other. In 1970 they released Abbey Road, possibly their most famous and successful album, just as they were in the process of splitting up.

If you want a more in-depth and sensible look at their career, read their Wikipedia entry, or some of the many books written about them.

About the Album:

It was not unusual at this time for bands who were successful in different countries to release different albums in those countries, in the belief that the people from different countries responded differently to things, and so they were targettedly crafted. It was possibly true that this process was more in the control of the record labels than the artists themselves, and somewhat reflected the idea that an album was a collection of songs, rather than an entity in its own right.

This album was the 5th US-released album by The Beatles, and contains 8 songs from the British album A Hard Day's Night, two tracks from an EP and a German version of I Want To Hold Your Hand.

My History with this Album:

None

Review:

I never thought that it would be possible for me to hear a Beatles album where most of the music was completely new to me. This is a good thing, as I feel I can be kind of impartial, and I'd like to mostly review it as an album in itself, as if there were no context of, you know, The Beatles. I think I have heard the penultimate track before, although I think a cover by somebody else. I was bemused by "Komm, Gib Mir Deine Hand" until I realised that they hadn't just re-used one of their tunes, but it was a German version. All the rest - totally new to me (Something New is an apt title for the album, then).

Growing up in the 70s, there was still a lot of fuss about The Beatles, with some people claiming they were the best thing since sliced chocolate cake. As I started to get into music, I would controversially claim that they were not all that good, and that other music was better. I was particularly not keen on what I perceived to be the shallowness of their songs. This album is slap bang at their shallowest, being early 60s and still pop songs sung about various aspects of romance. This was not unusual at the time, and in the 10 years that followed, pop and rock grew up, and particularly, a new level of authenticity and sincerity crept into the music, so it no longer felt like a product, cynically put together to sell records, and as if the singers didn't really believe what they were singing. 

So I was thinking about this as I listened to the album, as I washed up. There was a lot of washing up so I got to listen to the album twice (it's pretty short). My breakthrough thought was that this seeming fakeness was how things were at the time, looking back, dialogue in films and on TV was stilted, and songs were performed rather than heartfelt, because nobody had yet really broken through that veneer. What I am getting at is that I cannot blame them for that.

The other thing that struck me was the second listen through, when I felt like I knew almost all of the songs. This meant that they were immediately memorable. It's curious, because they all sound like lots of early 60s pop, and they all sound like early Beatles, and yet they all actually do sound different, and have their own qualities, mostly of being drattedly good pop, in that it sticks in your head. There are some songs leaning towards the rock end, and some ballads, and some 12-bar blues tracks. The musical composition is actually pretty strong, the use of chords is distinctly better than a lot of pop at the time. The vocals are good, the harmonies are excellent. This is carefully crafted pop, and I couldn't actually work out why none of these have become as famous as some of their other songs.

I have mellowed in my attitude to The Beatles over the years, recognising the art of good pop better than I used to, and just because they didn't do Dark Side of the Moon doesn't mean they were not relevant. Hearing this album has gone a long way to help me understand how they broke into popularity in the first place.

7.2/10

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ALqGRmHh2V0imba7nIMaF

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKKsb10K6yRhpSPxTMX-UBuVSJcZaQFzS

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Something_New_(Beatles_album)