The Beatles "Revolver"

The Beatles 7th studio album "Revolver" was released in 1966. It marked a new generation in their sound and their progression as artists. Prior to this album, the Beatles sound and image was more of a folk-pop type sound and "Revolver" started their path into psychedelic rock. This album was different in multiple ways from past albums due to the expanding genres the Beatles starting to write for. "Revolver" has been regarded as one of the most influential and important albums of all time. Influences for this album come from a wide variety of experiences and items. There are multiple themes for each song some stemming from simple protests against taxes talked about in "Taxman" to more drug-fueled experimentation on tracks like "Tomorrow Never Knows." This album had multiple unique recording techniques to give a special sound to the instruments. One of these techniques is evident on the track "I'm Only Sleeping," which used the reversing of the tape and notes played backwards to create a floaty unique guitar sound. Another unique track that incorporated multiple experimental recording techniques was "Tomorrow Never Knows," which had multiple drones, sound effects, and megaphone vocals. "Yellow Submarine" has an iconic wave and ocean recording as well as laughs and conversations coinciding with the lyrics, which were all highly innovative. "Revolver"The lyrics are also another high point for the album, with multiple layers and philosophical ideas for different listeners to relate too. The track that strikes me as the most impressive is "Eleanor Rigby." I really appreciate a pop song being written with really nothing more than orchestral strings, which is something very difficult to accomplish. I also really appreciate the sound effects and implementation of them in a pop album. Coming from a sound design point of view, their ideas were really original for the time. I also realize after listening to the album multiple times, that many of these techniques have been attempted by other artists but they never stand out as much as the Beatles attempt. This album overall is very interesting from start to finish, although I don't think it's the most fluid and impressive album ever as some have said. I do respect it greatly for the experimentation and risks that they took to record what interested them.