The Beatles Rubber Soul Album Review - How Good Still?

How good is Rubber Soul still, decades after its release? Here's my thoughts on this classic album!
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[michaelfrazia]

The output from these four during the rubber soul/revolver ers is the most prolific songwriting in pop music history....taking away we can work it out, day tripper, paperback writer, and rain away yet still having cover to cover masterpieces is hard to comprehend. They were in their early to mid 20s .. amazing period of creativity

[antonioszytulskyj]

The boys didn't let grass grow under their feet. In eight years accomplished everything. Rubber soul launched a thousand ships. It was the beginning of their personalizing songs. They had talent to sell. I like your collection.

[jnagarya]

The leap from "Help!" to "Rubber Soul" is phenomenal.

[daisynieves]

Rubber Soul is such a beautiful album! I have always been attracted to their pucture on the cover but, aside from that, the music is fantasic! Like you, I like Norweigan Wood. I have always been in love with that song!

[vicbertfartingclack]

If I Needed Someone is one of the best tracks on Rubber Soul. Norwegian Wood, Drive My Car and Nowhere Man are my other favs!

[tyronerodgers]

Good stuff Andrew! I can't believe that it has already been 20 years since the Nowhere Man and Think For Yourself remixes came out on the Yellow Submarine Soundtrack. Those mixes were great. Hearing the vocal harmonies for the first time over a broader stereo picture was amazing. Surely they warrant a deluxe version released in the future. I guess after Let It Be next year they will be thinking of that but I sometimes feel Apple have left things too late. When the Yellow Submarine Soundtrack came out I was 19. I am 40 next year!!! Anyway, Best wishes. Andrew in Tokyo ;-)

[mikeysaint]

Nice review, Andrew. A review of Rubber Soul means I get to mention yet again what a brilliant and underrated song Wait is. Everything about it works for me, and it's not been overplayed on the radio (etc) so it always feels fresh. It might be a leftover from Help, but it clearly grew thanks to creative overdubs between then and the Rubber Soul recordings, and the result is fantastic.

[SJHUE]

Great video! Didn`t know the story about the album cover when the slide slipped! Very interesting. You know I wasn`t initially a massive fan of this album but as the years have gone by I have gradually come to realise and appreciate what all the fuss is about. It`s a great album!

[bluehazeboy]

My all time favourite album, I really love the mono version,

[andrewbowman]

I think you're right about George's interest in Indian music beginning with that scene in Help! Also, the line "I'd rather see you dead little girl than to be with another man" was taken from Elvis's 'Baby Let's Play House'; I think John was intrigued by the potential of it. I agree with your summation of Paul's You Won't See Me is the beginning of his early melodic style, a style which lasted until Ram, in my view. It may even have started, arguably, with What You're Doing from Beatles for Sale.

[jamesdrynan]

I was fifteen in December of '65. I can remember putting on my Koss headphones and listening to this album during a snowstorm. It was astonishing! It was this record that put the group at the vanguard of pop music's development.

[mcu]

I'm from the U.S. and I grew up listening to the Capital release. I think with that track listing, it seems to give it a different feel than the UK version. The U.S. version does have a folk type feel to it. I now only listen to the UK version. The sound quality is better than the Capital release. I really enjoyed this video. Have a great day.

[peka]

Nice and good review! 👍🏼The first time i heard Rubber Soul i was almost 15 and it blew my mind.I owned the blue album at that time back in ‘74 and it was constant turning and playing on my recordplayer! 🤘🏼

[deusdedithkojiuchino]

This album was the first as I hear and my father have in home the Mono version, after this the concept of music change my life and stay fan finally.

[davidcatalano]

I love the flow and softness of the album and my favorite song on the album is John Lennon's in my life

[MichaelLantz]

It was David Crosby, who was still with "The Byrds" at the time, who introduced George to The Music of Ravi Shankar.The Beatles were touring America at the time and they were hanging out with The Byrds in Los Angeles. David Crosby in his 1986 Autobiography "That he asked George what time of music he liked and George said "Indian Music", David gave him a copy of an album by Ravi Shakar to take back to England with him and the rest is history.

[rubbersoul]

George Martin wrote the solo part for In My Life, but couldn't play it at the speed he found was necessary for the song. So he played it an octave lower at half the speed while recording on half speed. Then during the mixing at normal speed you get this great harpsichord like sound.

[scally]

Great video as always Andrew.
In my opinion, Rubber Soul is as close to an Unplugged album as The Beatles got. You can feel the American folky influences they'd picked up on the mammoth tours of the states.
And yes while some of the songs are timeless classics, you could tell the lads were under great pressure by pulling unused songs from the archives as the clock ticked towards deadline, and also by the less than great songs in that years sessions that hit the bin; If You've Got Troubles, 12 Bar Original, That Means A Lot. All on Anthology, but hardly worthy of The Beatles name in my opinion.
For me as a budding guitarist back in the 80's when I first heard this, it opened up new chords, new stylistic options and added a new colour palette to my playing.
Love the album. In My Life is just outstanding, contender for my favourite Beatles song.
Cheers mate

[davidjackson]

Rubber Soul is brilliant it's up there with the very best of the Beatles cannon.
Andrew just been on the Abbey road studios tour .It was excellent .I recommend it's a must for any Beatle fan

[MattTC]

The US version is my #1 favorite Beatles album!