Review Summary: This double album is double the fun
After the Magical Mystery Tour took the Beatles' away, they started to realize that they could not make another album that was like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, so they instead set up to make something entirely different. What came from this is The Beatles, a self-titled double album that some people like to substitute by calling it "The White Album" probably because just calling it The Beatles would be confusing if you are talking to someone about their discography as a whole, or if someone were to ask you what your favorite Beatles album was and it happened to be this one. Personally for me its not the best but its pretty close up there.
The most noticeable thing about the White Album is all the different variety it has on it. Clocking in at a giant 30 songs, there is enough on here to please anybody that even sort of likes the Beatles. The biggest problem I have with the album is the second disk. The first disk is almost perfect and if it were just a one disk, it would get an easy 5 star rating because all seventeen songs are enjoyable, even the weird ones like Ob La Di Ob La Da which is a reggae sounding song, and even The Continuing Story of Bungalo Bill, which is a weird childrens song with some Spanish sounding influences put in there for some good measure.
But the second disk is a little bit worse. A lot of the songs just sound a little too bluesy like a lot of the covers that they would put on their earlier songs that use that same blues chord progression that everybody knows (I disaffectionately called it the Bad to the Bone Progression once) and hates. There are several songs on this album that use it and it gets stale fast. There is also a 9 minute song full of noise and voice clips that really gets on my nerves called Revolution 9. It is actually one of my least favorite Beatles songs, but other than those missed steps, this is overall one of the best Beatles albums in the discography.
