Out of Egypt:

it's been said before, so i'll say it again (any thoughts sarah?)

The White Album is amazing. I remember while I was still at Covenant I used to listen to Sgt. Pepper's and take naps instead of going to chapel. At the time, I couldn't decide whether I like that album or Rubber Soul the best. The White Album I knew little of and generally suspected it as a product of psychedelic experimentation lacking in unity. But the music is just so good - arrangements, melodies, harmonies, everything. And there's a strange kind of stylistic flow even better the widely disparate songs that make it up.

I still think it might be too long though. I can't listen to the whole thing in one setting. Thus it fails the criterion that Poe set up for the appreciation of an artistic work.

The lack of unity you perceive in the White Album is due to the band's growing individualism that would eventually lead to their break-up. Paul and John were having larger and larger disagreements over aesthetics: John liked shorter, more compact pieces while Paul favoured longer, more episodic songs. The two would continue to work together for a few more albums (Yellow Submarine, Abbey Road), but eventually parted ways (rather messily).

I mean, just listen to Hey Jude (recorded during White Album sessions but released later). It sounds like two songs spliced together. Then listen to Julia, which sounds more cyclical, structurally.

Posted by: funke at March 27, 2006 10:55 PM

By the way, Rubber Soul is probably my favorite album just because of the single track Norwegian Wood. I don't really have any aesthetic arguments for my extreme appreciation of the song; I just happen to really like it. Nowhere Man is also in the album's favor, as well as I'm Looking Through You. (I could do without Ringo's much belaboured What Goes On. The poor drummer has such a choppy style. Once, before I was better informed, I got a CD from the library that was entirely Starkey tunes. I don't think I made it halfway through the album. ) Also, have you heard the Johnny Cash cover of In My Life? He leaves out the pseudo-Baroque piano riff, and slows the tempo just a hair. Plus his voice gives the song a depth in timbre that the Beatles, lovely as their voices are, just lack.

Anyway, since we're talking Beatles, I just thought I'd throw that out.

Posted by: funke at March 27, 2006 11:05 PM

I meant "keyboard sounding like harpsichord" riff, not piano riff. And it's technically not a riff in the strict sense, since it's composed rather than improvised. Maybe I should have said solo. Anyway, if you've heard the song, you know what I mean.

Posted by: funke at March 27, 2006 11:07 PM

I love the Beach Boy references in Back in the U.S.S.R., too, to return to the White Album. Okay. I'll shut up now.

Posted by: funke at March 27, 2006 11:09 PM

And don't feel as if you need to love The White Album more than the other albums. According to RollingStones magazine, the top album in rock history was Sgt. Pepper. No. 3 is Revolver. No. 5 is Rubber Soul. The White Album only made it to 10th place. Of course, I suppose that one should take any list that puts Pet Sounds in second place and OK Computer in 167th place (Kid A in 428th place) with a grain of salt.

Posted by: funke at March 29, 2006 5:42 PM

I'm not sure if I would put Radiohead very high myself...probably OK Computer in the top 50, and the others I'm not sure about at all. We'll have to wait for the judgment of history :) Pet Sounds I can see at 2nd place.

Posted by: Evan Donovan at March 29, 2006 8:01 PM