The Beatles - The Beatles
Critic Score
Based on 8 reviews
1968 Ratings: #11 / 114
User Score
1968 Rank: #4All Time: #161
Liked by 1,038 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
Pitchfork

Indulgent, sprawling, overflowing with ideas and excess, the White Album became not only a monument to unbridled creativity but a rock archetype.

100
AllMusic

None of it sounds like it was meant to share album space together, but somehow The Beatles creates its own style and sound through its mess.

100
Beats Per Minute

These tensions between the band members must have kept them all on their toes in order to compete with each other, because this album showcases their strongest songwriting since Revolver.

100
Rolling Stone

Despite its solo vocals, the White Album was the last Beatles album to evoke the old team spirit.

100
The Telegraph

Universally known as The White Album, this marks the beginning of the final phase of The Beatles career, as the group fractured into individual pieces. But it is still one of the greatest albums ever made.

100
Q Magazine
It's the most honest portrait of a band breaking some limits and banging their heads against others.
90
Sputnikmusic
The wonder of this album lies in the fact that over 90 minutes of music the band never ceases to surprise and confuse the listener, something which few bands could really hope to achieve, and even fewer to have the confidence to accomplish.
90
Slant Magazine
The double album reveals the popping seams of a band that had the pressure of an entire fissuring generational/political gap on its back.
Doublez
98

The History of The Albums – n°402

The period of the White Album strangely coincides with that feeling that comes over us when we watch with admiration and suspense a TV series where we feel that we have to enjoy it thoroughly because the conclu-sion is coming soon. You know that paradoxical feeling of nostalgia, where you say to yourself that it was still great although there is still time. Because basically, the Beatles' adventure in their management was almost irreproachable until ... read more

blinkAndMissit
93

I unironically love Revolution 9. The first time I heard it, I was reading the Wikipedia entry for Charles Manson and it scared the crap out of me.

JustSomeGuy
100

The Beatles revisited part 11/16

The White Album shows The Beatles perfecting the art of the filler album. While an album which is probably about 80-90% filler may seem like a bad idea on the outside, and most artists end up failing disastrously by doing something like this, The Beatles succeeded at not only making by far the best filler album, but one of their best albums ever.

I wouldn't be surprised if me calling the White Album – by far one of The Beatles' most renowned works ... read more

Sporke
85

While it isn't as good as Revolver or Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album still manages to pack in a lot of great songs onto a big double album with a feature length. It's not perfect. Wild Honey Pie is so stupid, and not good, but I kinda like it. The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill can run a bit long, but it isn't bad. Revolution 9 is an interesting idea, but fails in execution, and goes on for far too long. Good Night feels like a very underwhelming closer. Several songs ... read more

ingafommo
88

no one told me there was a Godspeed You Black Emperor feature on Revolution 9(joke)

33athol
78

This one feels like a massive brainstorm, with a bunch of ideas present, some more successful than others, and a couple just baffling. There is a tangible tension here too, signs of the inevitable breakdown of the band. But overall, the creativity is still there, and it is a good album all things considered, even with all the filler.

SCORE: 5.7/7.0

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Added on: September 2, 2012