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Rating:
I have discovered that writing reviews about albums you find lousy, mediocre, and that, in any way, you criticize or highlight their flaws, is easier than writing a piece that praises music products you consider magnificent, sublime, masterpieces! After all, one is more inspired when thinking negatively! It's easier for someone to write when they're tense, when they have something to say that feels constricting, something that doesn’t sit well with them.
In many cases, I have praised albums I particularly appreciate, but I can no longer manage it. I am more inclined, or rather, it comes more spontaneously to criticize an album that is not very excellent, with low expectations. This latter definition is erroneous for "Please Please Me," which is anything but without ambition! It can well be said it isn't the work of virtuoso musicians, but of guys with a common dream: to become rock 'n' roll stars, just like Elvis, Bill Haley, Chuck Berry, the Platters, and many others had been.
"Please Please Me" is an album of little songs played like by a school band, music intended for listening by boys and girls between 16 and 20 years old, especially by a female audience. The lyrics reflect youthful urges, the young people's desire to have a place in society, the exaltation of teenagers snubbed by adults, the longing for love, sex, and fun. "Please Please Me" is an album for the young! A sly voice like John Lennon's, the equally sly voice of McCartney accompanied by his bass, the catchy chords of George Harrison's guitar, and the punctual drumbeats of Ringo Starr make the Beatles the champions of their generation. Imprinted in the collective memory are "I Saw Her Standing There," the title track "Please Please Me," but especially "Love Me Do," with such a simple text, worthy of a rock 'n' roll hit that made history. "Please Please Me" is a work far from maturity, a mediocre debut, despite being a big step in rock 'n' roll, as it established a band like the Beatles in the English, German, and soon after in the American context, with the explosion of Beatlemania in 1964. The year 1963 is the year of the Beatles, of the four lads from Liverpool for whom producer Brian Epstein sweated, going around record companies asking for publicity, claiming to have found the new rock 'n' roll sensation.
The Beatles are certainly pretentious, they are four naive youngsters who still know nothing about life, who desire a star life but don't know what it means. Money, fame, girls! They will soon realize that's not everything in life! "Please Please Me" is an immature work, full of covers of other artists, and in which no song can be considered a masterpiece.
3.5/10
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