Do you live near Beatle Abbey? (Abbey Road - The Beatles)

Member Name: bailey_kipper_uk

Product:	Abbey Road - The Beatles
Date:	22/07/08 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great album full of great songs

Disadvantages: none really

I've realised that I own blooming (trying not to swear) loads of albums, certainly over 400 but based on my Itunes total of over 8000 possibly it's nearing 600, not a lot by Frankingsteins tally but not bad. So I thought I'd start at A and see how far I get before I think about getting my Megadrive out and starting my games reviews.

Abbey Road is the first album on the list in Album order so I'll start there, and what a good place to start. I was never a big Beatles fan until I picked up the White Album whilst on holiday, I suppose I was quite tight and it was the time before Play.com had started so albums still cost around £15, I found the White Album for about this so considering it was a double album I bought it. Anyway rapidly moving on I got round to buying Abbey Road to add to my collection.

There's a load of tracks on this album, starting with Come Together. I first heard the Paul Weller version of this and liked it, so to hear the original was pleasing. It's a great song, with not a lot of need for instruments, going mainly on vocals and a bit of shhhhhuuuup. 9/10

Something by George Harrison is about how there's that little something that is attractive about someone but whether that is enough to build upon is not yet clear. It's quite a slow song this and makes you swing slowly from side (even whilst writing this review). 7/10

Maxwell's Silver Hammer is quite the opposite from the last song, it's one of many Beatles songs that follows a story throughout, one of murder. Not sure if it's the same girlfriend as in the last song but she dies pretty quickly in this one, he then kills two others. The song however disguises this by being jolly and upbeat, quite bouncy. Brilliant song. 9.5/10

Oh! Darling is the next track and is about a chap who really doesn't want his missus to go (not quite Fatal Attraction). There's a lot of effort put into every line from Paul on this song, with a heavy rhythm and blues influence in it. 7/10

Octopus's Garden is up next and is a really happy song. The story of how it came to be is great too. Apparantly Ringo was out fishing and was told of how Octopus's (surely it should be Octopi or something similar) actually build gardens with stones and shiny things (ooooh, shiny). Being too young to have seen this live I've seen the Silver Beatles perform this in my local. It's a great song and of course everyone knows the lyrics so sings along, Ringo loves singing it and it's a great feel good song. 10/10

I want you (She's so heavy) is a long song, by anyone's standards, standing at 8 minutes. I can't even begin to imagine how many times I want you is said during the song. There's a lot of instrumental in this, lots of guitar, most of the last 4 minutes are almost solely guitar, with lots of heavy guitar and the same repeated section, until an abrupt end. 7/10

Here comes the sun, is a much lighter (pun not intended) song, it's mainly about how it's so pleasing to see the sun after a long dreary winter here in the UK. However, this is also about how it's nice to put all your worries and the dull things behind you for a while. 8/10

Because, is a mainly vocal song, with all but Ringo singing almost always together in harmony. It's a very slow song and is a change from the past few songs. Good song. 7/10

'You never give me your money' apparantly, well that's what my wife says anyway, this was also true of the Beatles. This is a song with a variety of styles. It starts with a slow section with long notes, but then speeds up to about twice the speed, there's then a mainly guitar based section, and lastly some lyrics again mixed in with some guitar, the lyrics not really in the same style as the rest of the song though. 7/10

As this is fading out, Sun King fades in. This song seems to have been the inspiration for many a chillout album today with a very very familiar backing. It's just an interlude song really. 5/10

---Don't be fooled by my low rating on these next few, as a whole they are great, but you can't really listen to them as single tracks.---

This is then very quickly followed by Mean Mr Mustard which is a very short 1 minute song. Basically about a tight chap, with quite a workaholic sister. 6/10.
The workaholic sister Pam is possibly the same one as in this next very quick song, however this one seems to be about a scouse girl who dresses up like she should be in the 'News of the World'. 5/10

Again no pause and straight into She Came in Through the Bathroom Window (writing a review whilst listening to the album can be quite tiring). These songs all flow into each other and are just a collection of short songs, but are a great example of the Beatles always thinking of new things. 5/10

This of course leads into the next song Golden Slumbers, which merges straight into Carry that Weight and feel like they are actually one song along with the next song 'The End'. I really like this whole medley, especially Carry that Weight, even though it's a simple song. The continuous music is great especially as it's all brilliant songs (though none really long enough on their own). 8/10

Her Majesty is the last song on the album, very very short. It was intended to be a filler in between Mean Mr Mustard and Polythene Pam but in the end wasn't needed. However the Beatles got their own way and the track was added to the end. Interestingly it actually could still slot straight back in as there are notes at the start and end of the song that connect to it's original location on the album. 5/10

Summary
~~~~~~
Just like in a football match it's hard to give a song more than 5/10 if it's less than a minute and a half, but this album is great.

The first half is full of good songs, and the second half is full of one very long song. Both halves together make for a brilliant album and one that having played today will no doubt be back in my car stereo shortly.

Summary: Listen to it, you'll love it, provided you don't hate the Beatles.