SPILL RETRO REVIEW: THE BEATLES – ABBEY ROAD

THE BEATLES
ABBEY ROAD
APPLE CORPS LTD.

ORIGINAL RELEASE DATE: SEPTEMBER 26, 1969

Abbey Road is The Beatles 11^th studio album, their near-final album before they split up. It really feels like a conclusion, however, there’s room for improvement. It has its high highs and low lows. It attempts a lot while falling into the worst shortcomings The Beatles suffered from. Too much all at once. While this album holds up mostly, some of it falters due to indulgence and excessiveness with its sound and songwriting.

The opening tracks of this album are quite timeless. “Come Together” is a catchy and intense track that really sets the attitude and style of this album. It features catchy, snappy lyrics and a near-stunning production. The next track, “Something”, surpasses everything else. It conveys the passion of love better than any other song, possibly not just in their discography but in modern music in general, because of its pure, precise simplicity and neutral areas. It is not a happy or sad love song, but instead a deeper look at love.

Sadly, the next two tracks, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” and “Oh! Darling”, give a less joyful impression of this album. Simply put, these tracks embody the most pressing issues that plague Abbey Road. The band indulges in styles that often turn monotonous. While a track like “Something”, for instance, could’ve fallen into this trap, it avoided it with its simplicity, a great attribute this band sometimes forgets. That is no more evident than here. For example, “Maxwell’s Silver Hammer” appears to be a fruitless experimental attempt, particularly by McCartney, and it significantly detracts from the album.

Abbey Road is an album of styles and changes, but it falters with its innovation and bold choices, making for an overall generally decent, but below The Beatles’ usual standards.  It boasts catchy tunes that almost resemble the boldness of those on their well-known albums, but it suffers from excessive indulgence in lyrics and production, preventing it from consistently delivering exceptional value. It feels like an album trying to connect to the past while creating a future, and while it mostly succeeds, it also slips up.

Overall, Abbey Road is a generally fine album that fails to live up to the best of what one of the greatest bands had to offer.

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