Album review 4/104 : The Beatles : Please Please Me

I'm officially announcing a sub project of the 104 album project (resist the urge to make a projectception joke): Listen to the core catalogue of albums released by the Beatles. Why? It's one of those things that I can't keep continuing to feign basic knowledge of this group. They're widely considered to be the greatest performing group of the 20th century and I'm not sure I've ever listened to a single album of theirs all the way through. I know some of the bigger songs if only vaguely. I didn't really grow up in a household where the Beatles were played and have had relatively little experience with their sound (I have no regrets about this by the way). Seeing as how we've already passed the 50th anniversary of their first album it seems like the perfect time to start.

So we're going to go on this adventure chronologically starting with "Please Please me" released in 1963. This album was more or less recorded in one day. This is such a stark contrast to their later albums which were much more created in the recording studios. This album consists almost entirely of their live show from the early 1960s.

Now I need to preface this with the disclaimer that one of the sounds I really don't like is late 50s early rock music. I just think it sounds so cheesy. I understand that the genre was so young and hadn't had time to evolve but that doesn't mean I have to love it. This album is good but every time there's something neat (interesting chords in P.S. I love you) there's an ear-splitting "SHA LA LA LA LA LA LA" (Do You Want to Know a Secret). I know that as far as groups go the Beatles sound evolves faster than most. Let's hope so!

It's so strange to think about a group like the Beatles existing in an actual timeline. This album came on the heels of 3 years of touring and writing songs. They were popular but not crazy popular yet. They wouldn't have had the money or name recognition to get an extended studio session to make a more polished album. It's strange to think of them sitting around saying "Alright guys I think we can make a rough cut of our live set to get our album out there." as opposed to their later music which would have been bought in the millions of copies whether it was good or not. I know they were pretty popular by 1963 but not even remotely on the scale of later in their careers.

Overall there are a few songs which were very good. These were usually the ones which gave a little preview to their future sounds. More complicated harmonies and rhythms. This is going to be a good project for me. I'm looking forward to working through the rest of their albums.