Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Review

Sgt.Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band - Beatles (1967)

Songs:  Sgt. Pepper´s Lonely Hearts Club Band, With a Little Help from my Friends, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Getting Better, Fixing a Hole, She´s Leaving Home, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, Within You Without You, When I´m Sixty-Four, Lovely Rita, Good Morning Good Morning, Sgt. Pepper´s Lonely Hearts Club Band Reprise, A Day in the Life.

Type of Music: Quality Pop with Psychedelic Influences.

Comments

It´s been called by some the greatest record ever made. Others consider it to be the first concept album. Many people regard it to be the best of the  Beatles Records.

Well, for me it´s non of the above. It´s not in my All Time Top 10 of Classic Rock Albums. And the fact that the title track is revisited at the end of the album is clearly not enough to consider Sgt. Pepper to be a Concept Album. There are too many styles represented here. And, for me at least, the best of the Beatles was still to come.     

Since we have now established what Sgt. Pepper is not, we can concentrate on what it does represent. First of all I consider it to be a Work of Art. Never before in my opinion was so much attention paid to the presentation of a record. I´m sure that many of you can at least partly describe the cover of the Album. The same attention was paid to the sound quality.

Sgt. Pepper is also a fine collection of songs. The variety of styles avoid the record to become boring even after many spins. There is the acid-rock of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, the Indian Chant Within You Without You written by George, the Circus Music of Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite, the Vaudeville of When I´m Sixty-Four, the power pop of Lovely Rita and the sad but lovely pop-ballad She´s Leaving Home.

There are a few minus points as well. Everybody who saw the Woodstock movie will agree that Joe Cocker made With a little help from my Friends his Song. Sorry Ringo!!

I also rate Good Morning Good Morning as a weaker song and the reprise of Sgt. Pepper is irrelevant.

And although I consider A Day in the Life one of the best songs on the record, there are inexplicable irritating flaws in the way John´s voice was recorded.

But these observations do not prevent Sgt. Pepper from being an essential Beatles Album. As such it should be part of any Pop/Rock collection.       

Black = Good Songs

Green = Great Songs

Red = Could Be Better

Rating:******** (8 out of 10)

Who should buy this Record: Everybody.