Help!

The Beatles revisited part 6/16

Help is easily the best pre-Rubber Soul album, and the first album they released that I can confidently say is great. This is the album that, if you ignore the greatness of their psychedelic and experimental output, would easily go down as one of their best efforts, and even though it doesn't reach the same heights many of their future albums do, it is still seen fondly as one of the biggest turning points in their music, with all of the songwriters improving an unbelievable amount in such a short period of time and them perfecting that pop-rock-with-folk-elements style they started in Beatles For Sale. It just ends up being an all-round solid record.

Honestly, I love this album so much, and if it wasn't for the fact that I'm less interested in this solely because I know how good their psychedelic stuff gets, I may even rate this even higher. This is just one of those albums that gets better with each new listen, even though it is relatively simple when compared to later albums. When eleven out of the fourteen tracks make up my favourites of their up to this point in time, and those remaining three are far from the worst things they have ever done, you know that you're in for a great time.

I do think that, as with all of these early Beatles records, the classics do steal the show much easier than the deep cuts. And honestly, is that any surprise? All four of the classics on here are phenomenal. The fact that the lesser of the four – You've Got To Hide Your Love Away – is still a stupidly catchy and memorable song should tell you all you need to know. The title track is probably the first Lennon song that you could call a true masterpiece when it comes to its lyrics, and the chemistry between the vocalists on this track, whether they're harmonizing together or if Paul is singing different lines in the background. And sonically, it's just a really enjoyable track. Ticket To Ride is a beast of its own, however, with it easily being the best Beatles song instrumentally up to this point. If anyone calls Ringo a bad drummer, just remind them that Ticket To Ride exists, as it's one of the few Beatles songs I can think of that is very focused on the drumming, and he honestly does an excellent job all throughout.

And then there's Yesterday. How do you even tackle such a track? How do you even talk about one of the most overplayed songs ever made, one of the most covered songs ever written, one of the few undeniable masterpieces that, no matter how much you may hear it, everyone still loves as dearly today as they did back in '65 when it was first released, and it being one of the only classic overplayed songs that doesn't have people bitching about it being "overrated" because it's been played one too many times? How do you say anything new or fresh about this track at all? Well, honestly, I probably couldn't add anything to the conversation when it comes to this song, and maybe that goes for The Beatles' entire career in general, but I'll just say this: this song is an absolute masterpiece. It's simply amazing. Even though I consider Paul to be the least impressive of the three main songwriters in the band, with him mostly just making catchy songs that had good lyrics that didn't reach the heights of either John or George, even the biggest Paul McCartney hater has to admit that he came out with a few genuine masterpieces throughout his run with The Beatles. Yesterday is probably my favourite McCartney song ever. If you had just read the lyrics and hadn't heard the song or even known who Paul McCartney was, you'd think it's a song written by an experienced singer-songwriter who had likely already had a career spanning decades, but the sheer fact that it was written by a 23 year old nearer the start of his career is one of the most impressive aspects of it to me. Lyrically, it's just beautiful, and the simple acoustic sound is what really sells that track to me.

And that was just the classics. The rest of the track listing, on the whole, isn't quite as good as those, but they're still damn consistent and very close to being on-par with them. I feel like songs like The Night Before and I've Just Seen A Face aren't talked about nearly as much as they deserve to be, with both being excellent examples of early McCartney greats. I do understand why both aren't as popular, especially considering they're on the same album as the legendary Yesterday, but come on. The Night Before is another really good tune that isn't the strongest lyrically but has an infectious instrumental and a catchy chorus to really sell it. And I've Just Seen A Face in general deserves more resepect, with it genuinely being a great song in its own right.

Also, I genuinely think that Act Naturally is one of the best Ringo Starr songs that he made with The Beatles. I know that it's a cover, but I genuinely think that Ringo, in their early discography, had the most character out of all the members, and this song is early Ringo at his best. I know that this is a very unpopular opinion, with most seeing this as one of the weakest on the album, but I definitely like it a lot.

Oh, and George has a few interesting moments as well. In terms of his lyrics, he really hasn't grown as much as either Lennon or McCartney, but I think I Need You is a nice early showcase of his experimentation, with it being the first Beatles song using a guitar volume pedal, and doing so with mixed results. Sometimes, I think it makes the song stand out all the more in a positive way, and other times it becomes so awkward that it starts to be gimmicky. Nevertheless, I do see it as one of the more interesting moments on the record.

For the three songs that I'm not as much of a fan of, the first two I wouldn't exactly call bad, but are definitely underwhelming all things considered. If you ask me, You Like Me Too Much is definitely the weakest George Harrison song so far, as it's completely forgettable and one of the most redundant songs on the whole album. Another Girl is alright, I guess, but again, it's forgettable. However, when it comes to the closer, Lennon's cover of Dizzy Miss Lizzy, it is honestly just plain bad. It doesn't fit the record at all, and it just comes off as an attempt to replicate the effect Twist And Shout had on Please Please Me. It doesn't work at all, and it becomes one of the biggest missed opportunities in The Beatles' entire discography. Just imagine how legendary it would have been if Yesterday had been the closer instead of Dizzy Miss Lizzy. God, that would have made the album even more lovable, wouldn't it?

Honestly, Help is a really good album. Like all of these early Beatles albums, it's simple and definitely in the shadow of what would come next, but this is pop rock Beatles at their best. They've completely perfected everything they were trying to do, and their songwriting has improved drastically. If they had stuck with this sound for the remainder of their career, you just know that we would be talking about this album in place of their later classics. But saying that, it is those later classics that make the Beatles what they're known as, and we're getting ever closer to them...

Favourite Tracks: Yesterday; Help!; Ticket To Ride; You've Got To Hide Your Love Away; The Night Before; Act Naturally

Least Favourite Track: Dizzy Miss Lizzy

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Original review:
April 26, 2019
Score: 79

Help! is the first Beatles album that I can actually say is great, and is a step closer to the greatness that they would eventually achieve. Unlike most of their previous work, I actually enjoyed most, if not all, of the songs on here. However, I would still argue that this really isn't greatest-of-all-time worthy, but for what it is, it is a really good and enjoyable record.

Favourite Tracks: Yesterday; Ticket To Ride; Help!; You've Got To Hide Your Love Away

Least Favourite Tracks: You Like Me Too Much; The Night Before