Review Summary: The Beatles' debut is definitely a good listen, despite being a somewhat spiritually conservative experience.
The Beatles’ debut, historically, opened many doors. The music industry wasn’t yet ready for long-haired groups with sloppy playing and minimal songwriting talent. This is what this band did differently; the idea of an album by a bunch of working-class dudes was out of the question, so the group stepped with confidence into the studio and recorded eight original tunes as well as six covers. Thus, the album-oriented philosophy of the 60’s maybe is in its infancy here, but it
is a beginning.
Truly, the originals here overshadow the covers by a long shot; Lennon and McCartney are already an accomplished songwriting partnership, so all the originals are filled with excellent melodies and harmonies. The selection of the covers is not random, either, as all of them are catchy and well-written so that easy-going flow of the album won’t get disrupted. An astute example is the segue of covers early in the album, namely
Anna,
Chains and
Boys; all of them are performed solidly, with relative vividness and don’t tire the listener. Unfortunately, the group doesn’t add anything impressive to these songs despite their obvious respect for the originals.
The result is similar with
Taste Of Honey and
Baby It’s You, also. The only cover which is actually a
vast improvement over the original is
Twist And Shout, which the boys enrich with that early, youthful excitement of 50’s rock’n’roll; John is simply marvelous on that one, too, with his voice having a intoxicating rasp as he sings lines like
well, shake it, shake it, shake it, shake it now, twist and shout. Terrific cover, this one.
The originals, on the other hand, are far more catchy and more adequate; sort of. The opening
I Saw Her Standing There is similar in tone and vibe to the album closer, only this time Paul leads the way with an exhilarating melody and ‘naughty’ lines like
Well, she was just seventeen, if you know what I mean and the band is actually tight on that one; Ringo never misses a beat, Harrison provides an energetic solo and the harmonies are, as always, superb. A 50’s styled original that’s a deserved classic off the album.
Misery is, by contrast, more pop oriented, without the flair of the previous song, but with a perfect melody and solid backing by the group. And
Please Please Me takes a bit of both songs, as it has a ‘rocking’ musical backbone but a pop melody. All of them are fantastic numbers and, without a single doubt, the best originals off the album; definitely needed to be heard by
everyone.
Which brings me to the main defect of the album; are
Love Me Do,
P.S. I Love You or
Do You Want To Know A Secret, expertly written pop tunes? Of course they are. The problem lies in the fact that these songs are not spiritually uplifting and this is unacceptable; the Beatles were not just any ordinary pop group, they were the essential pop group by which all other pop groups are measured for fifty years now.
What is more crucial, the Beatles were, in most cases, spiritually uplifting in their ‘pure-pop’ songs and utterly sincere. These songs are not sincere and certainly not spiritually uplifting in any way; they are instead conservative and ‘giddy’ as opposed to something like
I Should Have Known Better or
The Night Before to name a couple of songs.
Any respectable pop group could have penned something as emotional as, say,
Ask Me Why and
There’s A Place, but few bands could compose something as
truly joyful as
I Wanna Hold Your Hand or
This Boy
So, yes, this debut is a taste of things to come, but only a taste after all. Excellent melodies abound here, as well as professional playing from all the members and even if the amount of covers is too high for no particular reason, the record is still flowing excellently. The group was still finding its pop voice and after all, there are the aforementioned four songs you should definitely own in some form or another. So, take it as it is; a good, important, but eventually ‘inoffensive’ release from one of the greatest groups to grace this planet of ours.
