The Beatles: Please Please Me

  Year:1963
  Rating:11

Well why not start my trek as an album reviewer with the band that started it all, for me at least. In fact, this is the first rock album I ever bought so there is some nostalgia I have with this album. I bought it on January 3rd 2009 (I'm not very old) and I thought it was great. Well the times they-are A changin' so naturally this record isn't played very often. But now, let's not be biased and dive right in with a fresh and open mind.

Well we got an impressive 14 tracks with none going over 3 minutes. (Leave that for the prog bands) This album believe it or not was recorded in a day's session so it sounds kind of raw and unprofessional compared to their later works. For the time though, the record was kind of ground-breaking in its own right as more than half of the tracks are Lennon-McCartney originals. (8 to be exact)

The originals on this album go from great to mediocre. Among the greats are the title track, I Saw Her Standing There, and Misery. The title track is said by some as the first power pop song of all time. Not sure about that but damn if any song should get that recognition it should be this. Lennon and McCartney at this period in time were best at song-writing while working together so it's no surprise that the best songs were one's by both of them. The song has a great melody with pretty advanced vocal hooks for the time. It is also the catchiest song on the album. Awesome. I Saw Her Standing There starts off the album wonderfully. With it's 1-2-3-4 intro to the great vocal hooks. (again) Sure the solo is very derivative and the lyrics kinda suck but it's a freaking pop song for crying out loud! And Misery, the pseudo sad ballad, isn't sad in the slightest. But the melody again is great and doesn't overstay it's welcome. Oh, the vocal harmonies are amazing too. It almost sounds double-tracked but it ain't!

None of the other originals are quite as good but most are enjoyable. There's the groups first single Love Me Do which is annoyingly catchy, and it's b-side P.S. I Love You which is the very first McCartney ballad. Both are good songs, but they are kind of banal, I mean too banal. The George sung Lennon written Do You Want To Know A Secret is good but overstays it's welcome a bit. (And it's only 2 minutes long!) There's A Place is Lennon's first venture in the introspective world of lyric writing. I respect the song, but the melody doesn't do much for me. And then there's Ask Me Why. One of the weakest songs the band ever did. Too sappy, derivative and (gasp) not very catchy.

There are still quite a few covers on here as well and they share the same problem as the originals. The infamous Twist And Shout which closes of the album is great with an amazing vocal performance by John. The rest of the covers however, are just kind of okay. Anna and Baby It's You are predictable conventional numbers, Chains and the Ringo-sung Boys are amusing but kind of dumb and A Taste Of Honey is just...odd. And not in a good way. These numbers are all listenable and I don't really mind any of them. If anything, they show how great of songwriters they were even at this time.

Overall, this is an enjoyable album. Very lightweight and poppy but hey, it's 1963. What did you expect? Bob Dylan? (Oh wait, he made an album the same year. Oops) The biggest problem I have though is that it's kind of sissy. The Beach Boys were better when they were sissier but the Beatles weren't. I should probably give this album a 10, but I'll give it an 11. A good album, but the best was yet to come.