Album: With the Beatles
Artist: The Beatles
Release Date: November 22, 1963
Genre: Rock and Roll
Length: 0:33:07
Label: Parlophone
Producer: George Martin
1,001 Album Book: Yes
A wonderful step up, but not even close to the top...
Released only eight months after their debut record Please Please Me, With the Beatles is the second studio album by the Beatles. With the Beatles spent 21 weeks at #1 on the charts and eventually would go on to certify gold in six countries, escalating the success of the group tremendously.
With the Beatles features fourteen total tracks, six of which are covers and the rest are original compositions. Unlike Please Please Me, most of the eight original songs are written by the songwriting partnership of Lennon-McCartney but George Harrison has credit on the track "Don't Bother Me".
While the songs on this album contain similar themes from their first record, the songwriting starts to become more complex during this point in their career. Songs like "It Won't Be Long" has an interesting play on words with "It won't be long until I belong to you", "All My Loving" has more meaningful lyrics on the themes of love, and "Don't Bother Me" allows Harrison to bring out a more personal side in the lyrics.
This album was recorded in a period of a few months, unlike Please Please Me which was recorded in one day, and it is obvious as to the relaxed sound they adopt in this record. The quality of the recordings are much cleaner and the instrumentation is more experimental than the prior record. "Don't Bother Me" has McCartney playing claves in the background and Ringo playing bongos, which he plays again on the track "Till There Was You", Harrison plays more sophisticated guitar solos, and once again Lennon showcases his skills on harmonica in the song "Little Child".
The renditions of various Rock, R&B and Motown songs throughout the record are perfectly placed to make it seem that the Beatles were the original creators of these songs. The performance on "Please Mr. Postman" for example could be considered to be as good as the original composition by the Marvelettes. "Roll Over Beethoven", originally by Chuck Berry, serves Harrison's more raspy vocal style beautifully and "You Really Got a Hold on Me" by Smokey Robinson, is another fantastic rendition of a song from one of Motown's greats.
This is definitely not my favorite album by the Beatles but it really shows the progression in skills the group possessed between the time of their first record and this one. I truly don't think there are any bad songs on the album; it even features some of their larger hits such as "It Won't Be Long" and "All My Loving", but overall the albums after this one are where the Beatles start to mature. This was only the beginning for the group; the fact that they start out this strong, only to escalate to albums down the line like Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road, is almost impossible to imagine coming from a group that started off with songs from With the Beatles. This is what makes the Beatles such a fascinating group to learn about, especially if you listen to the albums in order...
Favorite Songs: "It Won't Be Long", "All My Loving", "Please Mister Postman"
Least Favorite Songs: No bad songs but "Devil In Her Heart" is probably my least favorite
Production Quality:
Mix = 7.5/10 (Fantastic mix for 1963 but could just be because I listened to the remastered so that's why I gave it a lower rating)
Innovation = 8.5/10 (Continuing to escalate their sound and influence endless groups still to this day)
Songwriting Quality:
Arrangement = 8.5/10
Lyricism = 7.5/10 (Fantastic songs written by the Beatles but still carry the same central themes around girls and love even if they are more complex than others. Also contains a good amount of covers which lower the rating for original lyrics slightly)
Instrumentation Quality:
Vocal Timbre = 10/10 (Even songs like "I Wanna Be Your Man" with Ringo singing carry a charm throughout, but the songs by the other three are definitely the strongest singing performances)
Instrumental Timbre = 9/10 (Beautiful instrument sounds but a slightly basic early sound that they came to perfect, but compared to other albums by them the instrumentation is slightly lacking)
Group Chemistry = 10/10
Overall Likability:
My Personal Rating = 9/10
Overall Rating: 8.6/10
Any confusion on how the rating is weighted/calculated, please look at my "About" page.
Remember this is all my opinion! Let me know if you agree, disagree or have any comments!