Reading this inspired me to sign up to this forum (just found it 5 minutes ago by searching "music forum").
Firstly, 8/10 is quite unfair in my opinion. Although it's hard to rate music out of 10 in the first place, to say Rubber Soul isn't perfect is ill-informed. It is perfect by its own measure; the execution of the concept is flawless, and this is surely alls you can fairly measure a piece of art by?
Nonetheless, this album is heralded by some of the greats as the most important and influential album to modern music. I'd have to agree as personally, I feel Rubber Soul closed the door on Rock 'n' Roll and forged Alternative Rock with its shell.
1965 was the starting point of everything that followed.
Unfortunately, this review throws around some common myths regarding the enginuity of Harrison in this era - something people have tried to discredit him for for more than a short while. Here are the facts:
1) See My Friends was based on Davies' seeing fishermen in India upon his arrival. His jetlag coupled with this scene felt rather trippy and inspired the appropriately psychedelic record that was See My Friends.
2) The song isn't very much like Norwegian Wood and, if you study the origin of that song, it's very unlikely it was inspired by it. In fact, the sitar was used on The Beatles record and it was actually a downtuned guitar creating the same drone-y sentiments for The Kinks.
3) The whole Indian inspiration was not unique to The Kinks or The Bealtes or ANY other band in the 60s for that matter. Everyone was embracing Indian culture at the time, so what came 6 months before what is irrelevant.
There's also If I Needed Someone which had an extremely iconic riff and Think For Yourself that, when coupled together, not only marked the start of everything to come from Harrison, also allowed McCartney to get very inventive with double-tracked fuzzy basslines.
Lennon's song-writing also became more poetic and meaningful around this time and drug-influences on the whole came into play. In My Life and Nowhere Man are two of the best Beatles' songs of any era and the exploration of other styles really becomes apparent in Norwegian Wood, Michelle and Girl (barre the whimsical nod at Elvis in the closing track).
Also, I'm glad you pointed out the breakdown in the typical boy/girl love song scenario that was the staple of early Beatles' music - The Word is an interesting insight into a further exploration of the concept and meaning of love.
Anyway, before this gets any more boring, I shall stop - although I warn you, I could write about the Beatles all day and PARTICULARLY Rubber Soul.
Thanks,
Zefer