The Beatles - Revolver

Revolver is the seventh studio album by British rock band The Beatles, originally released in August 1966 via Parlophone Records.

The best Beatles album? Rock historians often point to Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band as the moment, in 1967, when rock magically grew up and became a legitimate art form. Many fans love the sprawl and variety of the self-titled 1968 “The White Album”. In some quarters there’s a fondness for Abbey Road. They all have merit, but none of them is as consistently brilliant and innovative as Revolver.

It does everything Sgt Pepper did, except it did it first and often better. It just wasn’t as well-packaged and marketed. The hype that preceded Sgt Pepper had a lot to do with the leaps in imagination, the studio-as-instrument adventurousness that flourished on Revolver in half the time.

All the rules fell by the wayside with Revolver, as The Beatles began exploring new sonic territory, lyrical subjects, and styles of composition. It wasn't just Lennon and McCartney, either - Harrison staked out his own dark territory with the tightly wound, cynical rocker "Taxman"; the jaunty yet dissonant "I Want To Tell You"; and "Love You To", George's first and best foray into Indian music.

Such explorations were bold, yet they were eclipsed by Lennon's trippy kaleidoscopes of sound. His most straightforward number was "Doctor Robert", an ode to his dealer, and things just got stranger from there as he buried "And Your Bird Can Sing" in a maze of multi-tracked guitars, gave Ringo a charmingly hallucinogenic slice of childhood whimsy in "Yellow Submarine", and then capped it off with a triptych of bad trips: the spiraling "She Said She Said"; the crawling, druggy "I'm Only Sleeping"; and "Tomorrow Never Knows", a pure nightmare where John sang portions of the Tibetan Book of the Dead into a suspended microphone over Ringo's thundering, menacing drumbeats and layers of overdubbed, phased guitars and tape loops. 

McCartney's experiments were formal, as he tried on every pop style from chamber pop to soul, and when placed alongside Lennon's and Harrison's outright experimentations, McCartney's songcraft becomes all the more impressive.

The biggest miracle of Revolver may be that The Beatles covered so much new stylistic ground and executed it perfectly on one record, or it may be that all of it holds together perfectly. Either way, its daring sonic adventures and consistently stunning songcraft set the standard for what pop/rock could achieve. Even after Sgt. Pepper, Revolver stands as the ultimate modern pop album and it's still as emulated as it was upon its original release. 

Revolver had mixed reviews upon release, however it has since been regarded by music critics as one of The Beatles best albums and one of the greatest albums of all time.

The album reached #1 on the album charts in many countries including the US, UK and Australia.

This is one of the greatest albums of all time and is an essential addition to any record collection.

This LP Record was reissued in 2012 as part of The Beatles In Stereo Vinyl series, with Remastered Audio on 180 Gram Heavyweight Vinyl, pressed in Europe.