{"id":617142,"date":"2026-10-01T06:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/617142\/"},"modified":"2026-10-01T06:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T06:12:11","slug":"the-beatles-rubber-soul-special-edition-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/617142\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beatles: Rubber Soul (Special Edition) album review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\nYou can trust Louder<\/p>\n

Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

In which the 1960s\u2019 doors of perception cracked open. Rubber Soul, The Beatles<\/a>\u2019 sixth album, is where their fascinations with American folk and soul fused with their own barrelling beat-pop momentum to create a pivotal Sixties artefact: the pop album as complete artistic statement, and the first buddings of UK psychedelia.<\/p>\n

In the twangling sitar of Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), the Grecian textures of Girl, the baroque effects of In My Life (Lennon\u2019s self-proclaimed \u201cfirst major work\u201d) and the Byrdsy drug fun of The Word and If I Needed Someone, The Beatles took their boldest steps into revolutionary pop experiment, and nothing \u2013 music, art, fashion, your mum\u2019s body count \u2013 would ever be the same again.<\/p>\n

Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) (Second version – Take 2) (Visualiser) – YouTube
\n\"Norwegian<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a>
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The album itself, be it in the mono, stereo or Dolby Atmos mixes included in the various formats of this Special Edition of up to five LPs or four CDs, repels criticism by this point. It\u2019s a masterwork; argue among yourselves over this or Revolver. But the expanded release has other treats to recommend it.<\/p>\n

The inclusion of a seven-inch of Day Tripper \/We Can Work It Out is a nifty gimmick smacking of period authenticity, and the decidedly folk-rock Capitol Records US version that ditches some of the more intriguing tracks (Drive My Car, Nowhere Man, If I Needed Someone) in favour of a couple of songs left off the US version of Help! evinces how far American fans were behind The Beatles\u2019 evolution as 1966 dawned.<\/p>\n

The Beatles – Day Tripper (Songwriting Work Tape \/ Visualiser) – YouTube
\n\"The<\/p>\n

Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s the discs of unreleased demos, instrumentals and alternative session takes that will most excite the faithful. Amid the magical larks, fluffs and Goonslike Beatle-babble \u2013 the laboured We Can Work It Out demo that becomes a game show interlude, or the whole track of Beatle Talk in which they quote Stingray lines and call each other \u201cpickled onion\u201d \u2013 some tracks arrive ready-made for greatness (In My Life), while others evolve on-mic.<\/p>\n

Michelle begins in country trek fashion, Nowhere Man has several wonky early iterations, and take one of Drive My Car almost invents grunge. Most revealing are the various takes of Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown), involving a clunky, heavy-handed folk take and a highly experimental sitar version that illuminates their desire to push their own boundaries, and a previously unheard Lennon demo titled Little Girl, a twee romantic acoustic ditty exposing his true feelings towards such material by 1965: \u2018If you\u2019d asked me yesterday,\u2019 he sings, heartthrobishly, \u2018then I\u2019d have told you sweet FA.’<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Beatles: Rubber Soul (Special Edition): Price Comparison<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":617143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[156,157,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-617142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-music","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=617142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/617142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/617143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=617142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=617142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=617142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}