The Beatles - A Hard Day's Night Review

The Beatles A Hard Day's Night

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Tracklist:
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

Release Date: 1964

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3.8
excellent

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4.5
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Alex -Slayer- Robertson USER (30 Reviews)

2009-09-19 | 22 comments | 416 views

Summary: The Beatles mean business.

1 of 1 thought this review was well written

The Beatles mean business. And why shouldn't they? The band just finished the film that would go on to define the band, hell, the 60's, visually and aesthetically. In addition to perfectly capturing Beatlemania at its peak, the movie, entitled A Hard Day's Night, would go on to be a huge commercial and critical success, eventually being acknowledged as the rock-and-roll film. The band was appearing everywhere: television (70 million people watched them on "The Ed Sullivan Show"), being greeted by ravenous fans in other countries (they were met by around three thousand fans at John F. Kennedy Airport during their famous first United States Trips), Carnegie Hall, and, now, the good ol' silver screen. But, in case it needs any clarification, The Beatles were not film stars. They were musicians, and some damn good ones at that, so it doesn't surprise that A Hard Day's Night, the soundtrack to the film of the same name, didn't disappoint one bit.

Unlike their two earlier albums, Please Please Me and With the Beatles, A Hard Day's Night is unfailingly consistent, with almost every song a potential standout. It's also the first Beatles album to consist only of original material, and it's better for it. The band's covers were always a nice addition to their albums, but the real standouts always came from the genius songwriting combination of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, who wrote every song on A Hard Day's Night. Additionally, the album finds the band coming into their own as a true music group with its own sound. While their first two albums borrowed heavily from the music of 50's rock-and-roll artists such as Buddy Holly or even Chuck Berry, A Hard Day's Night sounded (and, to an extent, still sounds) like nothing out there. Its unique blend of acoustic pop and rock-and-roll was an innovative sensation back when it was released in 1964, and it still retains that same freshness to this day. To find a pop album that truly withstands the tests of time is something to be grateful for.

The album starts unforgettably: the first chord of the title track should be instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with popular music of the 60's. The song then launches into one of the band's most timeless (not to mention catchy) earlier singles, one that wrapped up Beatlemania, as a whole, quite nicely. The album, for the most part, keeps this level of quality up for its entirety. "If I Fell" is easily the most beautiful song the band put to records up until then, and introduced, purposely or not, the kind of irregular song structure that would become a staple of The Beatles' music later on in their career. Which is really what A Hard Day's Night was about: the album essentially laid out the musical patchwork for the band's later career, while still remaining a great album in its own right.

However, the album also borrows from their earlier works, including the beautiful "And I Love Her", which seems to act as an extension to With the Beatles' "Till There Was You", Spanish guitars and all. Other songs, such as "You Can't Do That", could have appeared on either of their two earlier albums, but were tweaked slightly to fit in with the rest of A Hard Day's Night's overall sound. Otherwise, though, the album is unique from Please Please Me and With the Beatles. The album certainly isn't a musical revolution for the band, but just flips their sound to reveal another, deeper side.

Standouts are everywhere: the excellent "Tell Me Why" finds the band honing in their vocal skills to create, like "Please Mister Postman" from their sophomore effort, an awesome display of vibrant harmonies. The song is also one of the happiest on the album, even when singing "tell me why you cried, and why you lied to me". "Things We Said Today" reveals unexpected musical depth when the chorus hits, suddenly raising the spirits from the nostalgic verses. "When I Get Home" also features exuberant vocal harmonies; its "woah-woah" refrain is just one of the great displays of vocal virtuosity on the album.

At worst, the album is shallowly enjoyable, with songs like "You Can't Do That", that serve up fairly standard pop fare, Beatles-style. An impressively little amount of songs on the album dip into this realm. "I Should Have Known Better" is also slightly flat, not doing enough to distinguish itself from both songs on A Hard Day's Night and songs in the band's earlier catalog. Except for a few slip-ups, however, the album is by far The Beatles' most consistent pre-Rubber Soul release, finally letting the band settle into a musical sweet spot, resting somewhere between breezy 60's pop and the rock-and-roll that dominated the 50's.

A Hard Day's Night finds an immensely talented band finally finding what kind of music they wanted to make. As proved by later albums, the kind of music they wanted to make was every kind of music there was.

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