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With The Beatles

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BlueMeanie:
So, it's 44 years ago today that With The Beatles was released. What does everyone think of this album?

I must admit that until recently I had thought of WTB as a blip on the landscape along the road to the great A Hard Day's Night. But recent listens - prompted by the Song Survivor Game - have greatly changed my mind. I am guilty of overlooking this album, sandwiched as it was, between their debut, and AHDN. But I'm forced to admit that it really is an unheralded little gem, including one of Paul's first 'great' songs - All My Loving, as well as the best crop of cover versions to be found on any Beatles album, and a great Lennon vocal to close - Money. Sessions for this album also produced their American breakthrough single - 'I Want to Hold Your Hand', and the rest is history.

If you've previously dismissed this album as just a stopover on the way to greatness, I strongly urge you to give it another listen, you won't be disappointed.

Beatles:
Yeah, I've always considered this my second least favorite album of their's right in front of Beatles For Sale.  I'll give it another listen :)

Kevin:
I've said it before and I'll say it again - I see A Hard Days Night as an aberation. With it's all-originals and inclusion of hit singles it distorts the album lineage, especially in that it makes the albums either side - With The Beatles and Beatles For Sale - seem tame (even poor) by comparison. If you remove AHDN  the run from Please Please Me through to Rubber Soul seems much more seamless.
I think the leap in confidence, ability and songwriting btween PPM and WTB is almost as great as the leap from RS to Revolver. They go from a tentative  awkwardness to bolshy swagger. And it must be one of the few rock albums from those murky black and white  days that still sounds so immediate and fresh

BlueMeanie:
That's always been my opinion of AHDN. Even though it's actually my favourite Beatles album, it seems out of place. WTB has definitely suffered from it. A comparison I often make is with Led Zeppelin. Led Zep 4 is an anomaly, sandwiched between LZ 3, and it's natural follow up - Houses Of The Holy.

Kevin:
If WTB had been allowed to follow the format of Please Please Me and A Hard Days Night, the inclusion of She Loves You (no more alien to it than Can't Be Me Love is to AHDN??? ) and I Want To Hold Your Hand would have made it majestic. It, like Beatles For Sale, definately suffers from a lack of one ot two outstanding big tunes.
Conversley, take AHDN and Can't Be Me Love out of AHDN (?), throw in a few covers and its stock starts dropping.

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