Released: 1968
Tracks: Back in the USSR; Dear Prudence; Glass Onion; Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da; Wild Honey Pie; The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill; While My Guitar Gently Weeps; Happiness is a Warm Gun; Martha My Dear; I’m So Tired; Blackbird; Piggies; Rocky Raccoon; Don’t Pass Me By; Why Don’t We Do It In the Road?; I Will; Julia; Birthday; Yer Blues; Mother Nature’s Son; Everybody’s Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey; Sexy Sadie; Helter Skelter; Long, Long, Long; Revolution 1; Honey Pie; Savoy Truffle; Cry Baby Cry; Revolution 9; Good Night
Best track: today it’s Blackbird
Track to skip: although some songs aren’t as great as others, I usually don’t skip any
It’s been a while, maybe even a few years, since I’ve listened to this album all the way through. There are a lot of things I love about this album. It’s obvious right from the beginning that this isn’t a continuation of what the band did on Sgt. Pepper and Magical Mystery Tour. I love that, for the first time really, this album is a total change in direction from the albums that preceded it. I think it was obvious in the singles that came out before this: Lady Madonna and Hey Jude/Revolution. Another major thing I love about it is the stunning eclecticism of the album. Never before (and never since, sadly) did The Beatles ever put out something that’s as varied as this. The band was always eclectic, but they outdid themselves on the White Album. Oh, about that title…this album is officially the band’s Self Titled album, but since the cover is all white and it’s always been called (even by the band) the “White Album”, well, that’s what I always call it and if I say “Oh, the White Album is great”, everyone will know what I’m talking about.
It’s almost funny how the band just switches direction from song to song. Take the change from While My Guitar Gently Weeps > Happiness is a Warm Gun (and within this song as well) > Martha My Dear. It’s unlogical, but it works! It’s nice how there are really no songs next to each other that are similar. Scanning through the songs, the closest I can come to ‘similarity’ is that both Birthday and Yer Blues are (more or less) 12 bar blues songs. Other than that, every song is a change in direction. And it works! I know there are a lot of people (band members included) who think that it’s too big of an album. Ringo thinks it should’ve been 2 separate albums and producer George Martin thought they should’ve just gathered all the best material into 1 awesome album. I happen to side with Paul McCartney in thinking it’s fine like it is and doesn’t need a thing changed. True, not all of the songs are excellent. Taken as individuals, some (like Wild Honey Pie, Why Don’t We Do It In The Road and some others) aren’t very good compositions and are actually kind of confusing as to why they exist, but when listening to those songs in the context of the whole album they fit perfectly and surprisingly make sense. Yeah, maybe a 1CD version of the White Album would be awesome, but it wouldn’t have that magic that the full thing has. Remember, it’s not just about songs; it’s about how all the songs fit together. Major kudos to George Martin for the excellent sequencing.
The album is a full band effort, even if it sometimes sounds like 4 different people doing stuff alone. Actually, a lot of the album was made that way; running 4 studios at once. This all can be traced to why the band broke up (FYI, Yoko was only one of 1,000 reasons why The Beatles broke up). All that said though, the space really gives each member plenty of room to shine. Paul goes hog wild experimenting with song styles, George gets 4 songs on the album, John shrugs off his LSD and cranks out a TON of great material (much thanks goes to Yoko for influencing and inspiring him), and Ringo gets two bright spots: his first solo composition (Don’t Pass Me By) and a 2nd vocal song in John’s album closer Good Night. It’s an incredibly sweet song John wrote for his son Julian and probably the best melody on the whole album. A great song anyway, it’s even better following the madness of Revolution 9. All in all, this is yet another classic Beatles album. Very few bands can make music this far-reaching, and a lot fewer than that can pull it off.
Rating: 95
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