How does Abbey Road hold up after 50 years? Pretty bloody well, it turns out.
The Beatles are the greatest band of all-time. Nothing will change that and perhaps Abbey Road is their greatest album. Credit must be given to Revolver and the White Album but, I currently am of the opinion (as of October 2019) that Abbey Road is the best.
Due to the release of the 50th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition of Abbey Road I could think of no better time to review the album. *This review will primarily focus upon the original Abbey Road record with passing mention to the newly released edition.*
Abbey Road starts out with a bang, Lennon’s ‘Come Together’ has to be one of the most iconic songs in The Beatles discography, and for good reason. The baseline is mesmeric, Lennon’s vocal are astounding as ever and the mish-mash lyrics sound bloody awesome. The rawness of take 5 of the Super Deluxe sounds incredible btw. George Harrison’s ‘Something’ follows and is perhaps one of the greatest love songs of all time, not much else needs to be said. ‘Octupus’s Garden’ features, my favourite Beatles song as a child and remains a delight to this day.
"The Beatles sexiest ever song"
‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’ is probably The Beatles sexiest ever song, the vocals from Lennon have a real bluesy feel to them, as does his guitar riff. The wall of sound it creates later in the record is biblical and my personal highlight of this album, along with them getting a noise complaint during the Trident recording session on the Super Deluxe (who tells THE BEATLES to keep it down??).
‘Here Comes The Sun’ comes next, Harrison’s most famous effort, as brings nothing but delight. ‘Polythene Pam’ often goes ignored but remains one of my favourite Beatles tracks, it lyrics are comedic but sound really bloody cool when sung by John Lennon. ‘Golden Slumbers’ is McCartney’s highlight on the album, the beautiful use of piano, strings and brass combine perfectly will his powerful vocals. And The Beatles charm rings through in the penultimate track, ‘The End’, encapsulating why I love them so much: despite being the biggest band in the world, of their generation and of all time to this date, they didn’t take themselves too seriously.
The album is incredible. But yeah, shock horror, The Beatles album is bloody brilliant. 10/10.