What I mean by this is that Help!, by itself, people feel is a good album. However, when compared to ANY album after it, it seems to get a bit of a shaft. "Help! is good, but the rest is better." Instead of Help! being the album where they experimented a bit with sounds, Rubber Soul gets the credit.
I feel that, because of this, Help! is a bit underrated as a Beatles album. I'd go as far as to say that it's superior to Rubber Soul. I think the title track is great, and it is part of the 1 trinity (along with Yesterday and Ticket To Ride, both awesome songs.) Ticket to Ride was one of the first tunes to have a bit of a different sound to it, if I remember correctly. Then you have a great Lennon tune (You've Got To Hide Your Love Away), songs that are just REALLY REALLY catchy (You're Gonna Lose That Girl, The Night Before - and the latter is so, SO fun to listen to and get into), George starting to be different (I Need You), some very fast singing by Paul (I've Just Seen A Face, which is a really cool song), and another Paul dittie called Another Girl.
It's such a well put-together album, and most of the songs are pretty darn good. But it never seems to hold up if compared to any later albums. Heck, if you look at the "What is the best album?" thread, Help! isn't even listed as a contender. Why is this?