The Beatles Album Ranking

Watching the televised celebration of the Beatles' appearance on the Ed Sullivan last night got me to listening to Beatles music all day today while I work. Others may categorize it differently, but I see four distinct phases of Beatles music: (1) Mop-tops. (2) Mature music phase. (3) Psychedelic. (4) Break-up phase. The show only gave us clips of the mop-tops, but most of the songs that were performed by other artists were from 2 and 3.

I wasn't a big mop-top fan; I was still listening to my parents' big band records. But when I heard music from their mature phase at age 10, I fell in love with the Beatles. This leads me to my ranking of the best Beatles' albums. Naturally, the best fall into the mature phase. This list is for the UK album releases rather than the US because each album better represents a time in their career. The early US versions drew from different albums and consequently mixed periods.

Top Tier:
1. Rubber Soul. The first complete offering in their mature phase. This was recorded in the fall of 1965 and Revolver in the spring of 1966. Though they continued to tour, they weren't busy making a movie, so they had more time to write and record. A lot of people consider Revolver to be the better of the two albums--and there is truthfully not a lot to choose between them--but I just happen to like these songs a little better.
2. Revolver. Definitely more experimental than Rubber Soul ("Tomorrow Never Knows," "Love You To," "She Said, She Said") and it rocks a little harder too. When you include the singles from this era ("Day Tripper"/"We Can Work It Out" and "Paperback Writer"/"Rain"), they wrote and recorded 32 incredible songs in about 9 months. Top artists would be happy to have these 32 songs to represent their best work over a long career.
3. The Beatles (White Album). Though this album is part of the psychedelic era and has some connection with it, most of the songs in here reflect the mature Beatles era. Also some overlap with the break-up era in that there is much less collaboration here than on any other Beatles album. Some silly songs ("Bungalo Bill" and "Honey Pie" come to mind) but some incredible tracks as well (too many to list). And to think that "Hey Jude"/"Revolution" were released as singles rather than included on the album.
4. Abbey Road. Their final recorded album is in some ways a throwaway. Side two is filled with incomplete songs that they never cared enough about to finish so they put them into a medley. But the medley works amazingly well and, when you include the excellent fully developed songs ("Maxwell's Silver Hammer" being the exception), it makes for a wonderful swan song. Unfortunately, the Let It Be album would come out afterward to make the ending a little sour.
Wonderful Stuff:
5. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. I know, I know. How can I not put this album higher? Easy. The emperor has no clothes. Because it was so jarringly innovative, Pepper has achieved fame out of proportion to the music itself. It's very, very good, but, to my mind, it does not quite match up to the albums listed above.
6. Beatles for Sale. The most underrated album they ever did. I don't think anyone else would rate it this high. It only includes 8 originals and has their worst cover ever ("Mr. Moonlight"), but it is the beginning of a transitional phase from the mop-tops of A Hard Day's Night to what they would become. It is a relatively quiet album as well with a lot of acoustic guitars. "No Reply," "I'm a Loser," "Baby's in Black," "What You're Doing," and "Every Little Thing" (along with the cover of Buddy Holly's "Words of Love") are incredible tracks. I will put this album on before anything below.
7. Help. I would like to rank this album higher. Many terrific songs. Still transitional in that "Another Girl," "You're Going to Lose that Girl," "Act Naturally," and "Dizzy Miss Lizzy" could have appeared on any early album. You know the standout tracks. However, I find the mastering of the album strange. It sounds compressed or something (I'm not a sound engineer), which makes it hard to listen to. Can anyone explain this to me?
8. A Hard Day's Night. The culmination of the mop-tops with that era's best songs and some hints of the transition to come. The first album with no covers, but definitely a few filler tracks.
Seriously Flawed Albums:
9. Let It Be. This is the hardest album for me to rate. I could make an argument for higher or lower. John had only one decent contribution ("Don't Let Me Down"), but McCartney had some of his biggest songs ("Let It Be," "The Long and Winding Road," "Get Back"). Along with Paul, I hated what Phil Spector did to it with the overdubbed orchestra and voices. The Let It Be Naked album is much better than the original release, but still really uneven.
10. Magical Mystery Tour. Full-on psychedelic phase. The inclusion of the singles "Strawberry Fields," "Penny Lane," and "All You Need Is Love" (none of which had anything to do with the movie or the rest of the album) save it from total disaster. Only the more modern production keeps this above the mop-top era albums.
Mop-Tops:
11. With the Beatles. These albums are not rated this low because they were not important. They were outrageously important and, along with the singles of that era, ushered in modern rock music. But when I go back and listen to them, I'm ready to move on to something better.
12. Please Please Me. If I were to rank these two albums by their importance or influence they would be numbers 6 and 7, but I only enjoy them for their historical sake.
Throwaway:
13. Yellow Submarine. Only four new Beatles songs. One throwaway track each from John and Paul. George's contributions are greatly under appreciated, but are among his better songs. Side two is dismissible movie theme music.