42. The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night (1964)

1. A Hard Day's Night*

2. I Should Have Known Better

3. If I Fell

4. I'm Happy Just to Dance With You

5. And I Love Her*

6. Tell Me Why

7. Can't Buy Me Love*

8. Any Time at All

9. I'll Cry Instead

10. Things We Said Today

11. When I Get Home

12. You Can't Do That

13. I'll Be Back

A-

So I'll preface this by stating that I'm going on holidays, and won't be doing this for a while. Anyway, on to the album.

Where With the Beatles showed the band at a transition point between pumping-out rock & roll covers and experimenting with their own song writing, A Hard Day's Night is an album comprised entirely of Lennon & McCartney originals. And really, the music is a quantum leap above the previous album. Of course these days the sound of the Beatles is ingrained in our DNA, but at the time the songs, while very catchy, must have sounded incredibly strange. I mean, what do you make of the bung chord that opens the title track? Or the weird little guitar figures that open and close many of the songs. Or the oddball approach to harmonies and melodies that characterises these songs. The Beatles were a pretty odd band, really, and they were pushing the envelope with this album. Yes, all the songs are catchy, and they're all ultimately pop songs about love, but this real marks the point where pop rock began to transition from bubblegum nonesense to something that could be considered art. Just look at the pop art album cover, showing the band members in rows pulling a variety of goofy expressions. It's all fun and easy to enjoy, but it's also very strange and musically adventurous. It's the blueprint for a million rock bands, really.

That said, this is mostly just another album of goofy love songs. "A Hard Day's Night" and "Can't Buy Me Love" are absolute classics, and a couple of the Beatles very best songs, but nothing else on the album really comes close to them. Add to that that you have a couple of John Lennon's little misogynistic fantasies in "I'll Cry Instead" and "You Can't Do That", and it's far from a perfect album. But it is a fun, modern pop record that helped to redefine what pop music could be, and it was hugely influential both musically and lyrically. I mean, I disparage the endless parade of love songs, but these are at least songs written with maturity and intelligence (mostly), examining the various bi-ways and little struggles and victories of the typical romance in a clear and interesting way that none of the pure pop albums on this list have really managed before.

But, ultimately, I have to admit that I'm just not much of a fan of this sort of music. I thought it was pretty good, but others might consider it transcendent. I do like the Beatles, but I really only consider the White Album and Revolver the masterpieces that everyone proclaims them to be. This is a very good pop album, but not really my thing. Except for "Can't Buy Me Love", of course, which is just one of the truly great pop songs and has a wonderful message to boot.

Anyway, this was another edition of "Tom is underwhelmed by the Beatles". They changed music, but I tend to think a lot of the people coming after them did what they were trying to do better. But then I'm not really sure why I'm being so negative. I think it's just that with so many great songs on this album I feel disappointed that it's not great all the way through. I am going to blame John Lennon, because fuck that guy.