The Beatles - Rubber Soul

Rubber Soul is the sixth studio album by British rock band The Beatles, originally released in December 1965 via Parlophone Records.

While The Beatles still largely stuck to love songs on Rubber Soul, the lyrics represented a quantum leap in terms of thoughtfulness, maturity, and complex ambiguities. Musically, too, it was a substantial leap forward, with intricate folk-rock arrangements that reflected the increasing influence of Dylan and The Byrds.

The group and George Martin were also beginning to expand the conventional instrumental parameters of the rock group, using a sitar on "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)", Greek-like guitar lines on "Michelle" and "Girl", fuzz bass on "Think For Yourself", and a piano made to sound like a harpsichord on the instrumental break of "In My Life".

While John and Paul were beginning to carve separate songwriting identities at this point, the album is full of great tunes, from "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" and "Michelle" to "Girl", "I'm Looking Through You", "You Won't See Me", "Drive My Car", and "Nowhere Man" (the last of which was the first Beatle song to move beyond romantic themes entirely). George Harrison was also developing into a fine songwriter with his two contributions, "Think For Yourself" and "If I Needed Someone".

Rubber Soul saw The Beatles back and invigorated, experimenting with the sound and instrumentation, to produce an outstanding album.

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