The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

With all of the Beatles' music being remastered and rereleased a week ago, it seemed like the time was right to start listening to them. I chose Sgt. Pepper's for no reason in particular other than liking some of the songs already, and I predictably liked it a lot. It's sort of a failed early attempt at a concept album. The idea is that the Lonely Hearts Club Band is a real group and the album is a recording of one of their concerts, but that only comes through in the first two tracks and the second to last. Other than that, it's just a nice collection of songs; four by John, one by George, and the rest by Paul.

I've heard a lot of these songs before, but the ones I haven't are enjoyable too. Even simple, somewhat dopey songs like "Fixing a Hole" and "When I'm Sixty-Four" have interesting elements to them. "With a Little Help From My Friends", the only track sung by Ringo, is good for getting into the mood of the album proper after the opening title track, and it was a revelation when I realize Joe Cocker covered it in The Wonder Years theme song. I'm not convinced "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" is really about drugs, but either way it's a nice, trippy little tune. I don't have to talk about "Getting Better" because it has to be in a commercial every year by law. George's "Within You Without You" is a unique track, infused with an Indian sound that serves as a nice breather in the middle of the album. "She's Leaving Home" was the best surprise of the songs I hadn't heard yet, and "A Day in the Life" is pretty much the perfect closer. Every song transitions smoothly into the next, and it's just a really easy to listen to collection of songs that comes together really well into quite a good album. I'm not sure it was the perfect jumping on point for the band, but I don't think it was a bad one.