Revisited - The BEATLES (1968)

Since diving into their catalogue quite extensively in the recent days, I had no choice to at least revisit one of their albums on my blog to which I chose the white album to be the very first one I review given that it's not only of my favorite albums from them, has my favorite songs from them but also its a complete album of music of what the Beatles were about and the musical range they possessed to go from genre to genre and nail it every time. I also argue that the Beatles are my favorite band because they have a song to fit every mood and it's the best song ever made for that mood because well, they were just that good. There's no way that someone could truly hate the Beatles because there's a song for everyone waiting to be found and played on repeat.

This album is quite big in the musical department in how many songs it contains and quite different to their past work seeming be going back to the basics in a way. My favorite songs on the album are Dear Prudence, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, Martha My Dear, Julia, and Helter Skelter to name a few but all of them are great except maybe Revolution 9. Though the music is great, the band was going through a seismic shift that ultimately went into their breakup only two years later. Even though tough things were going on in the band, they still made great music till the end because well they were the Beatles, made up of great musicians, singers, songwriters, and overall great story tellers.

The Beatles, also known as the White Album, is the ninth studio album and only double album by the English rock band the Beatles, released on 22 November 1968. Its plain white sleeve contains no graphics or text other than the band's name embossed,[a] which was intended as a direct contrast to the vivid cover artwork of the band's previous LP Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. The Beatles is recognised for its fragmentary style and diverse range of genres, including folk, British blues, ska, music hall and the avant-garde. It has since been viewed by some critics as a postmodern work, as well as among the greatest albums of all time.

Most of the songs on the album were written during March and April 1968 at a Transcendental Meditation course in Rishikesh, India. There, the only western instrument available to the band was the acoustic guitar; several of these songs remained acoustic on The Beatles and were recorded solo, or only by part of the group. The production aesthetic ensured that the album's sound was scaled-down and less reliant on studio innovation than their previous releases including 1966's Revolver and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band in 1967. The Beatles also broke with the band's tradition at the time of incorporating several musical styles in one song by keeping each piece of music consistently faithful to a select genre.

At the end of May 1968, the Beatles returned to EMI Studios in London to commence recording sessions that lasted until mid-October. During these sessions, arguments broke out among the foursome over creative differences and John Lennon's new partner, Yoko Ono, whose constant presence subverted the Beatles' policy of excluding wives and girlfriends from the studio. After a series of various problems, including producer George Martin taking an unannounced vacation and engineer Geoff Emerick suddenly quitting during a session, Ringo Starr left the band for two weeks in August. The same tensions continued throughout the following year and led to the band's break-up.

The Beatles received favorable reviews from most music critics; detractors found its satirical songs unimportant and apolitical amid the turbulent political and social climate of 1968. It topped record charts in Britain and the United States. No singles were issued in either territory, but "Hey Jude" and "Revolution" originated from the same recording sessions and were issued on a single in August 1968. The album has been certified 24× platinum by the RIAA.

By 1968, the Beatles had achieved commercial and critical success. The group's mid-1967 release, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, was number one in the UK for 27 weeks, until the start of February 1968,[2] having sold 250,000 copies in the first week after release.Time magazine declared that Sgt. Pepper constituted a "historic departure in the progress of music – any music",while the American writer Timothy Leary wrote that the band were "the wisest, holiest, most effective avatars (Divine Incarnate, God Agents) that the human race has ever produced". The band received a negative critical response to their television film Magical Mystery Tour, which aired in Britain in December 1967, but fan reaction was nevertheless positive.

Most of the songs for The Beatles were written during a Transcendental Meditation course with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi in Rishikesh, India, between February and April 1968. The retreat involved long periods of meditation, conceived by the band as a spiritual respite from all worldly endeavours – a chance, in John Lennon's words, to "get away from everything". Lennon and Paul McCartney quickly re-engaged themselves in songwriting, often meeting "clandestinely in the afternoons in each other's rooms" to review their new work.

"Regardless of what I was supposed to be doing," Lennon later recalled, "I did write some of my best songs there." Author Ian MacDonald said Sgt Pepper was "shaped by LSD", but the Beatles took no drugs with them to India aside from marijuana, and their clear minds helped the group with their songwriting. The stay in Rishikesh proved especially fruitful for George Harrison as a songwriter, coinciding with his re-engagement with the guitar after two years studying the sitar. The musicologist Walter Everett likens Harrison's development as a composer in 1968 to that of Lennon and McCartney five years before, although he notes that Harrison became "privately prolific", given his usual subordinate status within the group.

Overall, the album has become one of my favorites to listen to and one of my favorites from the Beatles. I feel this album perfectly captures the Beatles and the talent that each of them bring to the table. Each Beatle I feel shines on this album as well as a collective. Of course, it's hard to name your favorite song or album from them since there is so many to choose from and each one is good for their own reasons. In the end, however, no matter what album you love or song, they'll all great so if you haven't listened to the Beatles in awhile, stop being the fool on the hill and go back and listen to the band that changed music forever.