In my 25 years of listening to music, I have never heard a band or artist who made better music than The Beatles. Sure, there have been better individual guitarists, bassists, drummers, even singers, but the truth is, The Beatles are better than all of them because they wrote better songs, and performed them perfectly.The Beatles' music defies classification. It could be considered "pop" music; after all, they are the most popular group in the history of pop/rock music, but that would be selling it short. Calling The Beatles' music "rock" doesn't really work, though, because it doesn't sound like the rock music being released by their contemporaries.
A Beatles album that is shockingly underrated is their 1965 release Help! The Beatles have four albums ranked in Rolling Stone magazine's top ten albums of all time, and five in the top fifteen. Where is Help!, you may ask? Number 332!?! Okay, I understand: within the next eighteen months, The Beatles would release Rubber Soul and Revolver (ranked # 5 and # 3, respectively, by Rolling Stone, in case you were wondering), but these two classic albums overshadowed another classic.
Granted, there is some filler on this album. George Harrison was still progressing as a songwriter, and his two contributions to Help!, I Need You and You Like Me Too Much are awful. Tell Me What You See and It's Only Love (which does grow on you after a few listens) aren't too strong, either. Still, take away those songs and you still have an excellent 10-song LP.
The album opens with the famous title track, a song Lennon said he wrote about the mounting pressures of stardom, although it seems to be disguised as a love song. After the solid but forgettable McCartney track The Night Before comes the classic Lennon song You've Got to Hide Your Love Away. The song is incredibly energetic; even without drums or bass, Lennon's vocals drive the Dylan-esque melody, although it feels abbreviated at just 2 minutes, 7 seconds.
Following I Need You is McCartney's extremely catchy Another Girl. Despite the song being rhythmically similar to The Night Before, Another Girl's skillful guitar work makes it a memorable track. You're Going to Lose That Girl, led by Lennon, is a call-and-response track that is reminiscent of The Beatles' earlier work. The first side of Help! is concluded with one of the group's signature tracks, Ticket to Ride. Although it can certainly not be considered "metal," Ticket to Ride is a much heavier than other music being released in 1965, which is just one reason the song is unforgettable.
Side two of Help! is opened with the requisite Ringo Starr song Act Naturally. While not a particularly strong track, Act Naturally seems to fit Ringo's role in the band, and on the album, perfectly. Following is the album's weakest stretch, It's Only Love, You Like Me Too Much, and Tell Me What You See, then McCartney's I've Just Seen a Face (Falling). Like McCartney's previous tracks on the album, Falling is more catchy than it is good, but its fast tempo and upbeat lyrics make it memorable.
In contrast, McCartney's final contribution to Help!, Yesterday, is much more subdued. In what is essentially just a solo track (with Paul on acoustic guitar and vocals, being backed by strings), McCartney sings of heartbreak and regret in perhaps The Beatles' best-remembered song. Although the album seems over after Yesterday, there is one more song, Lennon's Larry Williams cover Dizzy Miss Lizzy. Although undoubtedly misplaced on the album, Dizzy Miss Lizzy once again displays Lennon's vocal talents in an old school, rock and roll love song, one of Help!'s strongest tracks.
The main reason, in my opinion, for Help! being so underrated is its poor choice of song order. While Help!, Ticket to Ride, and Act Naturally are well-placed, it was a mistake to group most of the album's weakest songs together on the second side. One could argue that I Need You and You Like Me Too Much should have left off completely, and Tell Me What You See is also noticeably weak. Yesterday would have been the perfect way to end the album; Dizzy Miss Lizzy, instead of being put at the end, could have been placed between two of the weaker songs on the second side to re-energize the album.
Despite the presence of filler and some poor placement of songs, Help! is one of the best albums ever recorded. Containing four of The Beatles' best-known songs (Help!, You've Got to Hide Your Love Away, Ticket to Ride, and Yesterday), as well as several other catchy, memorable songs, the album was the first to truly make the group's music historically significant; before, one could argue that The Beatles had just been a pop culture phenomenon. As if this wasn't enough, Help! was followed by Rubber Soul, Revolver, and Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band within less than two years, making up (in my opinion) the best two-year stretch in the history of modern pop music. Number 332? I don't think so!
