Coming of age
A lot has been written and spoken about "Rubber soul" It is basically The Beatles coming of age release. Their work takes on a more reflected and personal identity. They sound more mature in their singing, playing and songwriting. At no time though does this CD sound heavy handed or preachy. Some of the pop sheen is still present, but their melodies and subject matter have a very passionate feel to them. They were still writing in a "singles" (45's) mode and so most everything on the CD sounds like it could have been a hit single in 1965. For that matter probably could be a hit record these days too. Really the only true throwaway song on here is Ringo's "What goes on?" Everything else brims with worthy craftsmanship. Imagine how good this album would have been had they included "Day tripper" & "We can work it out" instead of issuing them as a double A side single.

Beatles Rubber Soul
I received this CD as a gift and was very disappointed to find that the songs were not the same as on my old record. I've Just Seen A Face was my favorite song and it is not included.

Sid the Elf thinks Rubber Soul is the most underrated Beatles album
Whenever Sid is driving in his car on a crisp autumn day the first thing he thinks about listening to is some Beatles. And, Rubber Soul just might be the best album the Fab Four ever made. "Drive My Car," the first track is good, a solid single for the lads. But, Sid tends to dislike many of the guys' "hits." It's the second track, "Norwegian Wood," that really kicks off the brilliance in the effort. This is one of the best song the group has ever done, and it is never mentioned in a listing of their better tunes. The whole album is excellent with the exception of "What Goes On," sung by the one and only Richard Starkey of course. The highlight, though, is the incomparable "Michelle." Sid defies you to find a sweeter ballad. If you can't groove with the mellow licks at the end of the song, Sid doesn't know what to tell you.

The Beatles Sharpen Their Skills As Songwriters.
With their mop top days behind them, The Beatles grew their hair even longer and entered a new phase of their musical careers inspired more by the ecletic songwriting of Bob Dylan than the 50's swing that influenced their early work. By this time they had pretty much milked the American pop star dream for all it's worth and people wanted to see the group exit that highway and travel down a new road of artistic creativity.

The Beatles cut Rubber Soul when rock was transitioning from simple, three chord jukebox music to a true art form that was only beginning to absorb such influences as folk and jazz. This was around the same time Dylan plugged in an electric guitar for the first time and turned his folk songs into foot stomping yet lyrically sophisticated folk-rock. The Beatles did the same thing only with an opposite approach. They took their already electrified pop rock sound and added the advanced lyrics of folk. Their obvious advantage over Dylan was that they were already superstars on both shores of the Atlantic so unlike Dylan who was only now gaining a wide audience, the Beatle already had a nearly universal fanbase. This is one of the reasons why Rubber Soul is a milestone in getting folk-rock onto a high perch of popularity.

Of course, regardless of this advantage, the album would have been widely dismissed if the music wasn't on par with the hype. Content-wise, the album lives up to the hype perfectly. The album consists of fourteen songs that are catchy and memorable in a pop sense but also display lyrical content, the likes of which had not been seen in pop music. Two genuine classics are here in the form of Norwegian Wood and In My Life. Neither song has a direct and immediately apparent meaning. In My Life is often interpreted as a romantic love song even though it could be about love for anyone, or even anything in general. Norwegian Wood with its cryptic lyrics completely pushed the bounderies of typical pop formula. Many of the other songs like, "I'm Looking Through You", and, "Run For Your Life", are similar songwriting experiments that, more than ever before, made the listener think.

Songwriting aside, the instrumentation on the tracks is equally groundbreaking. One of the first uses of the sitar appears on, "Norwegian Wood". The sitar would later go on to be a staple of the psychedelic music of the 60s. "In My Life", features producer George Martin playing a piano solo which is sped up to sound like a harpsichord. Again, very little if anything like that had been used on pop recordings before.

Also featured on the album is the all time classic, "Nowhere Man", a song John Lennon apparently wrote about himself that further redefines traditional pop formula. Unbelievably, this would not be The Beatles most groundbreaking work. A year later they recorded Revolver which twisted and broke the rules of rock and pop altogether and helped usher in the psychedelic era. But as a starting point for the Beatles maturing songcraft, Rubber Soul is a classic that set the tone for most, if not all of their records that followed.

Very good!
This is a great cd the beatles had it together on all the tracks a must have.,