The Beatles: Magical Mystery Tour
 

Roll up for the Mystery Tour!

Recently, I made a post on why Sgt. Pepper is not my favorite album by the Beatles. This is one of the reasons. Magical Mystery Tour is probably my 2nd favorite album by The Beatles. It has amazing psychedelic songs and a lot of good instrumentation.

Songs like Fool on the Hill, Hello Goodbye, and even Penny Lane are songs I will never forget. There are songs you could skip like Flying or Baby You're A Rich Man, but those are very good as well.

You can really pick up a lot of guitar on this album. On the song Flying, the guitar intro is so amazing.

Is it the best album by The Beatles? Not at all. White Album or even Rubber Soul are better than this but this is just a preference. I have a soft spot for psychedelic music.

8/10

Fair rating i would have to agree, it's not their best album but it's certainly not their worst.

apart from the big hits i like Blue jay way and your mother should know.

Nah, it's their best album. You're both wrong.

You're wrong, the white album is better.

As is Revolver.

Revolver and White Album are good, but MMT is their only album that is made up almost entirely of five star songs. The other two (and Abbey Road) have some filler tracks that take away a bit from the album. MMT is consistently fantastic.

I agree with Abbey Road and White Album having filler, but for me Revolver is gold-standard throughout. The only song I perceive as being slightly redundant is Doctor Robert, but even that is a nice bit of psychedelic continuation from Paperback Writer. There are a few songs on MMT that don't really do it for me, The Fool on the Hill being the prime candidate. It just doesn't have the impact as an album that their other stuff has. Sure, it's got an upbeat bit of pop psychedelia to it, but everything's a bit more juvenile, to my mind at least.

Still like it though.

I like it because it actually pushed boundaries within their sound like everyone says that they do for once instead of just borrowing an innovative idea from someone else. Sgt. Peppers is more refined but MMT just has a playful and experimental vibe that's not weighed down by some of the more disciplined approaches that they took to other albums. Maybe I like it the best because it reminds me of how I make music just to have fun and not get caught up in inventing something new but letting that happen on its own.

I was never that fond of the title track of this album. I do like the fade at the end (sounds Doors-y) but that's definitely a song I tend to skip.

Most of the other songs on the album are really good, I would agree. But I wouldn't call it their best album.

MMT is a pretty solid record but the self titled song Magical Mystery tour and Baby you're a rich man to me are weak songs, Fillers basically.

it has fool on the hill and penny lane which are ok i guess but the songs that really mark the album are i am the Walrus and strawberry fields.

Take in contrast the White album, not only does it has more tracks it has more diversity than MMT.
MMT feels like a psychedilc album but the white album is a completely different beast, you got Julia in there, Sexy sadie, Helter Skelter, Happiness is a warm gun.

F*ck, Happiness is a warm gun alone to me crushest most of their previous hits.

Revolver, i haven't listened to much.
i skimmed through it not to long ago and the only songs that immediately caught my attention were im only sleeping and Tomorrow never knows.

IMO, The Beatles never made a perfect album. Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's, MMT, White Album, and Abbey Road each had a filler track or two. Rubber Soul doesn't have any duds, but its overall quality isn't as good.

I actually think A Hard Day's Night, taken on its own merits, is the closest they ever came to "perfection".

I think I agree most with Pet sounds here. Rubber Soul is just about my favorite for consistency (it feels more whole conceptually), but I'd probably take the White Album as a favorite. MMT is excellent, of course, but I really don't care much for "Baby blah blah", "All you need is blah", and a couple others i can't remark much on because they don't stand out. But it does have a very unique feel and laid the groundwork for pretty much all ELO so that's cool.

Ah man I forgot about All You Need Is Love. I hate that song. The rest are great imo (just double checked the track list to be sure). I like the title track as well because it sets the stage for the weirdness of the album nicely.

Totally agree.

Dark Side of the Moon, Avalon, and Crime of the Century are three examples of what I'd consider perfect albums.

Can't speak for the other to but happen to think Dark Side is vastly overrated. Like some of the tracks but definitely not perfect. I understand its influence though, but I much prefer Barret's stuff, even The Madcap Laughs, over anything post Saucerful of Secrets. Been meaning to listen to Avalon for a while, I do like Roxy stuff.

^ my friend told me a member of an emo band told him this once. Are you that member

Agree about Avalon and Dark Side. Supertramp did make a perfect album, but it wasn't Crime of the Century ("Dreamer" always bugged me). Even in the Quietest Moments… is simply brilliant from beginning to end.

Agree about A Hard Day's Night being their closest to "perfection" across the board (although Revolver is my favorite Beatles album and that's nearly perfect too). The Beatles never made a perfect album, but I also don’t think any other group has made a perfect album, and that includes Dark Side of the Moon and Avalon as mentioned here (can’t offer an opinion on the Supertramp albums as I haven’t given them a proper listen). Some bands are allowed to get by on sound rather than songs on certain album tracks, whereas The Beatles are held to a very high standard in terms of quality of songwriting, song by song. So if you listen to a Beatles album and hear one or two of their sillier tracks (e.g., Paul’s “granny” music or Ringo tunes) it mars the record even if the majority of the other songs are great. Whether you like The Beatles or not, they are judged very harshly track-by-track than other bands are.

Side note on Roxy Music: I like Avalon very much, but it’s a little too slick for me (just personal taste). I prefer the eccentricities and angularities of their debut and For Your Pleasure (I’m an Eno fan), and Stranded, Country Life, and Siren. I'd recommend going in chronological order with Roxy Music.

I don't think that The Beatles have made a perfect album, but if you don't think that any band out there has made the perfect album you might want to change your criteria a bit. I can think of 100 that I would call perfect. It's always different in context, because what may work for a perfect punk record is far different for what's perfect for a classical record.

ppl keep saying they never made a perfect album and it's true but in contrast they never made a bad album either.

Their discography as a whole is pretty damn impressive.
lets be honest, as played out as they are they consistently cranked out great songs while evolving as a band, the quality in their music never dropped.

Consistency > Perfection

I'd really like to learn about some of the albums you consider perfect, Frownland. Don't expect you to post the 100, of course, but if you can list just a few, I'd be very interested in listening to them. My criteria are more flexible than they may appear -- I was just sticking up a bit for The Beatles here. :)

Totally agree, especially with the bolded.

:clap:

I consider Billy Joel's The Nylon Curtain, The Beach Boys' Pet Sounds, and Panda Bear's Person Pitch perfect albums, as well.

The "perfect" albums aren't necessarily my favourites by the groups, however.

Great pick! Love that record from start to finish. (And yet, one could say it's overly derivative of The Beach Boys, leading some to judging it as "imperfect".)

Same for me. There is often beauty in imperfection. Beauty in the ugliness, and ugliness in the beauty, as someone once wrote about the Velvet Underground's music.

I'll make a quick list with several genres. Here goes:

Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica (obv)
John Cage - A String Quartet In Four Parts
Billy Woods - History Will Absolve Me
Ornette Coleman - The Shape of Jazz to Come
The Residents - Duck Stab!
Gang of Four - Entertainment!
John Coltrane - Sun Ship
Kevin Coyne - Marjory Razorblade
Mr. Bungle - Disco Volante

That's kind of the idea that I was going for. An album that serves all of the purposes that it intends to do is what qualifies as a perfect album for me, so long as it sounds good. I listen to a lot of dissonant music so they may not fall under what would be "perfect" for a pop record, but the style fits so cleanly into the group's sound that it can't be anything but perfect for me.

If it wasn't for 'Silver' Dolittle would be perfect. :p:

I agree on Pet sounds being perfect.
That album actually helped me in my personal life and i love every song from it.

Thanks, Frownland. I've heard Trout Mask Replica, The Shape of Jazz to Come, and Sun Ship and love and revere all three of those albums. Looking forward to the rest, as I do respect your musical knowledge very much. I tend to like the interplay of dissonance with more fluid sounds, and I bet I'll find some of that on those albums. Thanks again for sharing your list, I appreciate it.

I'm kind of on board Pet Sounds being perfect. There's something so organic and honest and beautiful about the sound on the album across the board, from the jangly guitar to the amazing harmonies to the interesting and earthy percussion, which all forms together into a great stint of pop-psychedelia. Top song-writing too. It's daring and exciting whilst also being very crisp and smooth in its delivery, which is a difficult line to tread.

Still prefer Revolver though!

You just wrote a perfect description. ;) Very well stated and I agree in every respect.

You just became even more perfect! :)

^ I agree but then i have the issue of an album like SMiLE, especially coupled with Pet Sounds, where just those two alone could do as much or more than as great of output as the Beatles have, regardless of their other releases.

Oh, this was in response to Black Francis' consistency > perfection statement

I second Frownland. MMT is my favorite album by the Beatles - and by any group or artist. Rubber Soul is my second favorite Beatles album followed by A Hard Day´s Night.

I have never yet run across a perfect album - although MMT comes quite close. Almost all of the songs on this album have great melodies - and a great melody is the essence of a great song.

Just because you put a bunch of stars and rainbow colours on a album cover it does not make it psychedelic album.......The album was thrown together with some songs that originally came out as 45s. Penny Lane, Truth be told there are very few psychedelic songs on the album in my opinion........

Did I say that the album cover really made the album psych?

I think Flying, Blue Jay Way, Baby You're A Rich Man, and maybe I Am The Walrus are classic psychedelic rock. I do respect your opinion though...