Because...

by Charles Miller on December 30, 2002

It's official. The Beatles' Abbey Road is the best LP ever produced.

Something captures George at his most magnificent. Maxwell's Silver Hammer harnesses Paul's twee-ness into something greater. Come Together and I Want You (She's So Heavy) show John in his raw, blistering majesty. Even Octopus's Garden grasps of Ringo's silliness as a musical counterpoint.

And then side two... The whimsical Because... Because, where John takes Moonlight Sonata, plays it backwards, and transports us to another plane. And the whole medley from You Never Give Me Your Money right up to The End. snippets of brilliiance woven into a tapestry that none have ever since matched. Even Polythene Pam, the weakest song on the album, can be credited as the ideal bridge into She Came In Through the Bathroom Window, which segues so perfectly into the sublime Golden Slumbers.

Excellence. I feel privileged to be able to listen to it.

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