Customer Reviews
AND IN THE END ........ - By: Mr. Christopher J. Welch, 02 Jul 2008 
The Beatles final album (last to be recorded) is a mixed bag. At one end of the spectrum there are Harrison's two landmark songs - 'Something' & 'Here Comes The Sun' then there is Lennon's frankly baffling 'I Want You Shes's So Heavy' & McCartneys trite 'Maxwells Silver Hammer'.
This is the sound of a band falling apart. Of course, this being the Beatles, there are also moments of pure brilliance - 'Come Together' is John's last great Fabs song & his band mates, especially Paul, help turn the swampy blues track into a minor masterpiece. Ringo's jaunty 'Octopus's Garden' may be a lightweight kids song but the inventive arrangement & clever harmonies are often overlooked.
Abbey Road though is Macca's album. 'She Came In Through The Bathroom Window' is almost classicalin it's composition, whilst his work on the long medley shows a manin full command of his obvious talents. George also excells throughout & his distinctive lead guitar work is often outstanding.
Lennon was, at times, very critical of the overbearing McCartney & on Abbey Road the division between the two was never more obvious. But it's Paul thats holds the record together & it's to his, & George Martins, credit that the results are so good. Free to experiment with newly installed 8 track recording equipment the Beatles managed to fashion a complex & polished sounding album that lacked onlyin consistencey & focus.
Had 'Come & Get It', 'Maybe I'm Amazed' or Harrison's 'All Things Must Pass' made the cut then this could well have been The Beatles finest hour. It's sounds a lot better than the scrappy 'Let It Be' & as a swangsong record still manages to stand head & shoulders above the competiton of the late 60's. The iconic cover shot was the icing on the cake.
THE LOVE YOU TAKE IS EQUAL TO THE LOVE YOU MADE - By: C. Bellegarrigue, 15 Jun 2008 
Que frase mas magica: "Y al final el amor que tomas es el amor que tu distes"; con tan brillante frase (que Lennon llamo "cosmica") los Beatles cerraron con un tremendo broche de oro su brillante carrera discografica; aunque LET IT BE fue su ultimo disco lanzado, en realidad ABBEY ROAD fue su ultimo trabajo discografico como grupo; ¡¡¡Y QUE TRABAJO!!! DEJARON LO MEJOR PARA EL FINAL; considerado el mas increible album despues de PEPPER y REVOLVER, este disco tiene los brillantes rocks COME TOGETHER, I WANT YOU, lindas baladas como SOMETHING (de George), OH DARLING, brillantes pops como HERE COMES THE SUN (si, tambien de george), armonias exquisitas como BECAUSE (escuchen como se funden las voces de John, Paul Y George), canciones ingeniosas como OCTOPUSS GARDEN (la segunda composicion de Ringo) y el mitico y grandioso MEDLEY DE ABBEY ROAD que inicia con YOU NEVER GIVE ME YOUR MONEY, la preciosa SUN KING (con palabras ¡¡en castellano!!), la movidisima POLITHYNE PAM, una soberbia SHE CAME THROUGH THE BATHROOM WINDOW, una linda cancion de cuna GOLDEN SLUMBERS y nos lleva al extasis final en THE END, ¡¡¡que gran final!!! para terminar con una mini-composicion de Paul HER MAJESTY... UN GRAN FINAL PARA UN GRAN GRUPAZO!!!
Addictive - By: Mr. Cl Hetherington, 24 May 2008 I tell you what. This was the best way for the Beatles to end the show. Every song makes you want to listen to the whole disc again. A great triumph. Beatles Rule!
A wonderful goodbye.... - By: New Gold Dreamer, 08 Apr 2008 Best tracks: "Here Comes the Sun", "She Camein Through the Bathroom Window", "You Never Give Me Your Money", "Something", "The End"
Abbey Road wasn't literally the last Beatles album to be released (Let it Be was held off for a year or two), but it was the last to be recorded, & as such is the true swansong for this remarkable band. Its first half is somewhat disjointed although its almost all brilliant, while its justly praised second side (with its much-loved medley) is a miracle of sequencing & flow, turning a great album into something of a classic. John opens with the pared-down "Come Together", George follows with the blissfully lovely "Something" (one of his very best) & then Paul delivers what some regard as one of the worst Beatles songs ever & a grim forewarning of the worst of his solo material. I`ll let author of classic Beatles book Revolutionin the Head Ian MacDonald sum it up: "If any single recording shows why The Beatles broke up, it is `Maxwell's Silver Hammer'". A jolly, jaunty ditty about a hammer-wielding psychopath, it is pretty damn silly, & seems to say absolutely nothing about anything, but there are worse Beatles songs out there. Can't think of any at the moment though! "Oh Darling" is nothing special song-wise, but it's beautifully performed, with a McCartney vocal that's often quite spectacular! "Octopus's Garden" is a Ringo tune (one of only a very few he wrote for the band), & bless him, it's exactly what you'd expect from the singer of "Yellow Submarine" to deliver. There are some pretty cool guitars on here, & the whole thing is rather cute, I hasten to add! So far, Abbey Road is all over the place; protest songs, love songs, sick-joke songs & odes to underwater hideways....and it goes one further with "I Want You (She's So Heavy)", which is a full-on rock beastin the mould of The White Album's "Helter Skelter", though this time it's a John song. A simple, direct lyric, accompanied by a dirty, bluesy sound which eventually gives way to an amazing, almost never-ending finale that becomes hypnotic not before long. It cuts out all of a sudden without warning & with it the original first side of Abbey Road is all wrapped up; although most of the songs, when taken individually, aren't quite classic Beatles, as a whole it works surprisingly well.
The second side of Abbey Road on the other hand, is absolutely fantastic from start to finish, a non-stop run of wonderful songs, beautiful harmonies, terrific throwaways & magnificent hooks that represent a fond farewell from this band, one that somehow manages to be valedictory without ever once feeling pompous, overblown or self-worthy. Even its more epic, dramatic moments, like on "Golden Slumbers" & "Carry That Weight", are free of bluster or pomp, & there's always cheeky asides like the hidden epilogue of "Her Majesty" to bring it all back down to Earth with a nod & a wink. The utterly beautiful "Here Comes the Sun" opens it all, & this is probably my favourite George song from the Beatles years; evocative of a glittering summer's morning, it feels like what it's all about; a new start, a fresh beginning....you could almost read it as George's own goodbye to the band & the start of a whole new era...the haunting, deeply lovely "Because" has around a dozen layers of vocals by the band, & is an enveloping, atmospheric & really quite special thing of beauty. Paul's terrific "You Never Give Me Your Money" is almost a medleyin itself, his own "Happiness is a Warm Gun", if you will. Shifting tones & gears many timesin just over four minutes, it's a mini-miracle of composition & melody, with many glorious moments & joyous embellishments, it`s sad, happy, funny & by the end, quite spectacular....it drifts into the heavenly "Sun King", which is like some kind of swirling, intoxicating dream; great, great vocals here, a woozy, blissful atmosphere....it's really quite wonderful. Two delightfully silly tunes follow, both of which barely encompassing three minutes. "Mean Mr. Mustard" has a nicely sloppy, mopey rhythm which is rudely interrupted by the storming "Polythene Pam", which has John sounding more blatantly Liverpudlian than he hadin ages! The astonishingly fine "She Camein Through the Bathroom Window" has the kind of guitar hook that The Smiths' Johnny Marr may have been influenced by; this song's a real gem, one of Paul's most deliriously melodic & exciting tunes one of the band's best hidden treasures. "Golden Slumbers" begins to wrap up The Beatles time on Earth, with a tender, powerful chorus, while "Carry That Weight" is really quite stirring; together these two pack a great punch. They lead directly into the fantastic, appropriately titled "The End", which features a rather cracking Ringo drum solo (it's very good too, I hasten to add), a rising, exciting rhythm & a rather lovely finale....and then it's all over. No more Beatles. It really was The End. Then, Paul sings a song about the Queenin a goofy yet utterly, utterly right surprise coda that makes me chuckle every time. It's a perfect end to one of THE greatest sides of vinylin music history, & the album as a whole is a wonderful goodbye-wave from a band who have been praised to almost preposterous levels, yet stuff like Abbey Road (okay....maybe not some stuff on the first side!) help to justify the love.
Beyond words - By: gabby, 04 Apr 2008 I know it sounds pretentious to say that this album's brilliance is 'beyond words' but it's just too true to express any other way. In my opinion, 'Something' is one of the most perfect songs of all time. There's just something so beautiful & aching about it that means without it, you can't really say you have a proper music collection! Oh Darling is fantastic, as is Octopus's Garden, & the instant burst of happiness that floods you with the opening bars of 'Here Comes The Sun' is just about unbeatable. What I love most about this album, though, is the ending-from track 14 'Golden Slumbers', to 'Her Majesty.' Just a rollercoaster of a ride & emotions; the songs flow seamlessly into one another, so much so that on first listen you might not realise the track has changed, but it works amazingly & is a brilliant innovative way to end what is put simply a masterpiece of an album. Just an absolute classic you have to own... & it's not just for the people who were there when Beatlemania was about! I'm 16 & have grown to absolutely treasure this album.
