The Beatles
Abbey Road

THE REVIEW

"Abbey Road" is an overrated work. And as the years go by, historical perspective confirms this impression.

Year 1969. Albums like "In the Court of King Crimson", "Happy Sad", and "Ummagumma" were being released. Innovation, elliptical art, progression, a culturally defining or at least representative imprint of an era; with poetic and technical characteristics of undeniable relevance. In this sense, "Abbey Road" is just an album that represents its authors at the peak of a certainly dazzling career, capable of backing every gesture with a mystical aura that confuses ideas and sugarcoats any pill.

What is so brilliant and epochal about "Abbey Road"? An album more famous for its cover than for the songs it contains: indeed, try asking a hundred people to name a track from it, and only a small percentage will be able to name the most well-known titles (Here Comes the Sun, probably, and Come Together). Conversely, the crosswalks of the street with the same name are known even to mosquitos. Musically, a summary of the Beatles' ability to create a style, a trademark; a summary of the McCartney-style song form and the various modes of singing (and playing) that in the end had nothing exceptional, even setting aside King Crimson and Pink Floyd for a moment.

If we consider that "The Velvet Underground & Nico" and "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" came to light two years before... why is "Abbey Road" universally considered one of the most beautiful albums in rock history?

Of course, beauty or the intrinsic lyrical value of a work is not measured only by certain structural characteristics. But even within Lennon and company's discography, there have been more substantial and markedly new highlights. And if it weren't for that gem of "I Want You", the album in question would be a collection of ballads that rework, adjust, and definitively fix the group's global style (especially of the two main authors) to pass it on to posterity as a kind of testament. Inside, you'll find the palettes already used in "Sgt. Pepper" and "Revolver", well-hitched formulas that wink at various types of admirers, but first and foremost the cult iconography - both manifest and subliminal - of the Fab Four that cloaks everything in monumental and indestructible seductiveness.

Frankly, I find little appeal in fanciful ballads that involve the octopus's garden, or the stories of Mr. Mustard... both from a narrative and sound perspective. Today more than ever, especially considering the discotheque has since filled with masterpieces compared to which "Abbey Road" is a musical surrogate of pop-blues reminiscences and pseudo-psychedelic nursery rhymes.

I know well that I am dissonant compared to the average: have you prepared the rotten tomatoes to throw at me? Go ahead. I have only expressed my opinion. And if I have to listen to a Beatles album, I pull out "Pepper" or "Revolver".