The Beatles – Help! [Audio CD]

Description

Fifth studio album by the legendary British band, which is also the soundtrack to the film of the same name. The album features a number of classic Beatles’ tracks, including ‘Help!’, ‘You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away’, ‘Ticket to Ride’ and ‘Yesterday’. Review Help! is The Beatles second movie soundtrack, and its inferior in many ways to its predecessor. Where 1964s A Hard Days Night took the bands inventiveness to new levels, and was complemented by one of George Martins sharpest production jobs, this set sounded rushed and light on studio sheen. Its title-track written as a heartfelt slow ballad was sped up by Martin and turned into a jittery single to accompany cartoonesque footage of the band footling about on skis up a hill. Self-pity, one of Lennons favourite moods, rears its Beatley head on the pop-Dylan of Youve Got to Hide Your Love Away, and Ringos highlight is a (pretty well-chosen) cover of Buck Owens country hit, Act Naturally. Oh, and the token rocknroll song, Larry Williams Dizzy Miss Lizzy, seems dizzy from malnutrition more than anything else. But this is a Beatles album, so its unlikely to not be at least brilliant in places. It contains the most popular song never to be beaten to death by an X Factor contestant, the genuinely beautiful Yesterday. Its got Ticket to Ride, the song that saw The Beatles take on The Kinks, the Stones and The Who at their own, more rocky game. And Help! itself, while not the pre-primal scream yell of pain that Lennon wanted it to be (such songs would come later), is still a brilliant, pounding single, a cry of despair so full of “woo!”s that you reckon The Beatles are still enjoying themselves. McCartneys Ive Just Seen a Face is another highlight (its a song he liked so much that it was one of the few Beatles numbers he performed with his 70s group, Wings), and Act Naturally is so infectious, silly and perfectly 1960s-country that it deserved its number one US singles spot. So, Help!