PLEASE PLEASE ME

This is strangely enough the first time I have ever been listening to this album, back to back (which I have now done five times). I am well past my sell-by-date and this album has not landed in my lap before now. Shocking..... Well, Neil Young and Iron Maiden was much more down my alley than The Beatles.

As the debut album of the most important pop band ever, this is a pretty decent effort. But in a prog rock context, this is nowhere near the real thing. This is pretty decent pop with some references to the crooner scene which took over from rock'n'roll when Elvis joined the army, Jerry Lee Lewis married his 13 years old cousin and scores of others died (Cochrane, Holly etc). Inbetween, The Beatles also rocks on a couple of tracks.

The best tracks is off course the title track. A track that is a classic Beatles track by anyone's standards. Love Me Do is also pretty close being a classic with it's harmonica intro. Those are the only good prog-like tracks in a good pop album. It is pretty easy to understand why so many other bands has copied this album and The Beatles. Unfortunate, this naive pop music here is not for me.

2.5 stars