'Rubber Soul' is the first Beatles album that works its magic without yelling at you. It sounds much more like a carefully-crafted gem than the representation of a live set. The band sound confident that they're taking rock music to a new level and from here on they don't need outside material. It serves partly as a wind-up for 'Revolver', the album it most resembles, but is a classic in its own right. You can admire the diversity and ingenuity here, but you can't allege gimmickry.

The stylistic progression includes the more solid rock approach of 'Drive My Car', subtle but intricate vocal arrangements as on 'You Won't See Me', the laughing effect of the fuzz guitar on 'Think For Yourself' and the smouldering, impassioned delivery of 'Girl'. There are many great songs too, as indicated by the extent to which other artists picked this album over. The Overlanders took 'Michelle' to number one and disappeared; The Truth put 'Girl' in the charts and followed suit; The Hollies made 'If I Needed Someone' another top ten hit; and Judy Collins brought out the full poignancy of 'In My Life'. Then of course there's John Lennon's legendary 'Norwegian Wood', a tale of the unexpected, as well as the instant 'Nowhere Man'.

The only false notes are perhaps 'What Goes On' on which Ringo reminds you that he drums better than he sings, while Lennon himself is on record as saying that he hated 'Run For Your Life'. Even so, it isn't a bad song. File 'Rubber Soul' under the usual - peerless.

This fabulous, fourteen track CD, with twelve tracks by the Lennon/McCartney songriting duo, one track by Lennon/McCartney/Starkey(Ringo), and one by George Harrison, is a significant departure from their earlier works. Here, the music is lusher, darker, and more complex. With the release of this album, The Beatles bid goodbye to their "Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" days and established themselves as a musical force of note, more talented than anyone had imagined.

With vivid imagery and themes, they sang about life and all its turbulent emotions, a virtual social commentary. From the rock and roll refrains of "Drive My Car" to the sitar laden "Norwegian Wood", followed up by the existential "Nowhere Man", The Beatles had a lot to say, and they did so with a vengeance.

Love was still an important theme, however, to which Paul paid homage with the romantic ballad, "Michelle", as did John in "Girl", a song so filled with yearning, it is almost palpable. As if this weren't enough, add the lament of love lost in "I'm Looking Through You", as well as the achingly poignant "In My Life", and you have a musical experience so complete, that no music collector should be without this CD.

1965 was the year that The Beatles began to be considered not just likeable entertainers, but something far more substantial. Geniuses in fact. The album 'Rubber Soul' was the start of a succession of brilliant Beatles albums.

'Rubber Soul', in fact, begins in unspectacular style, with 'Drive My Car', then 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)' takes the breath away, with John Lennon singing a, legend has it, autobiographical song. It's a beautiful Eastern/Western mix, helped by George Harrison's sitar. 'You Won't See Me' is a poignant love song sung by Paul McCartney, and with 'Nowhere Man' following, we are already well into a classic Beatles album. The latter has John in sensitive, insightful mood. A beautiful song.

'Think For Yourself' and 'The Word' are uptempo, the former being a George Harrison song. The latter has a John vocal, and marvellous harmonies from John, Paul, and George. Both pretty good. Better still is 'Michelle', which underlines a rapid maturing of The Beatles. They are becoming accomplished at this time in creating songs in various styles. In this instance, Paul sings in French, with accompanying music that makes it sound like a French folk song.

Beginning side 2 is 'What Goes On', which suits Ringo Starr's plaintive voice, and 'Girl' is in a similar style to 'Norwegian Wood', with John again supplying a moving vocal. 'I'm Looking Through You' is unusual in that it's Paul and not John delivering a barbed vocal. John then sings 'In My Life', which is the stand-out track on the album. Lyrically it's even deeper when reading the lyrics only, and the music, especially George Martin's baroque piano, is enchanting, and it was a song which had 1960s intellectuals drooling! George Harrison's 'If I Needed Someone' is pleasant, with a Byrds style ringing guitar sound (The Byrds were influencing The Beatles at this time, and vice versa). The catchy 'Run For Your Life' sees John end things, using that sometimes spiteful tongue to good effect.

'Rubber Soul' was the first Beatles album to really take popular music to another level, and there were a few more outstanding Beatles albums to follow!

- Paul Rance/booksmusicfilmstv.com.

Love the new remasters- they are stunning in their clarity and detail. However, perusing them in the racks at HMV yesterday as this very album was playing I couldn't help but feel sad that the mono mixes have been resigned to
an overpriced limited edition box set only. In the above store, at the front desk- only guitars, drums and the occaisional harmony vocal could be heard. Way at the back- about a hundred feet away- was Lennon's voice all on it's own. God knows what the casual punter walking round the shop, or young people wondering what all the fuss over the Beatles is all about must think hearing them this way. They probably thought that half the speakers had gone kaput! The stereos are fine if your speakers are quite close together, but in that environment- I was almost embarrassed. Lord knows what one of the even more primitive early albums, such as With The Beatles would sound like! I didn't stick around to find out. In 87, the stereo mixes of the first four were deemed unreleasable. Why are they, therefore, considered acceptable now? Please, EMI- sort it out and make the mono mixes avilable too, so EVERYBODY can hear them the way they NEED to be heard- with the power and precision only the mono mixes contain. If not-
and I know this is heretical to some- a full remix for the whole catalogue comparable to Yellow Submarine Songtrack or Let It Be ...Naked please.
Love the new remasters...understand fully the historical importance of the stereo mixes, but up to Rubber Soul at least- they are poor relations to the monos.
Oh- and I do wish the digipacks of the new remasters had inner sleeves for the cds, they'll be trashed in no time taking them in and out of those card sleeves!

In the shadow of "Sgt. Pepper...", "Revolver", "The White Album" and "Abbey Road", "Rubber Soul" is often forgotten. It is where The Beatles stopped writing songs about holding hands, and started to write real serious stuff. "Norweigian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" talks of adultary, and is the first song to contain a citar (courtisy of George). "In My Life" is a fantastic song of nostalgia, while "I'm looking through you" is about a love affair that's gone awry.

This is the first classic album, and diserves a place in everyone's collection (it inspired "Pet Sounds" for goodness sake!). This is a sign of what was to come.