Rubber Soul - UK
Artist: The Beatles
Community Score: 7.34

While the Beatles still largely stuck to love songs on Rubber Soul, the lyrics represented a quantum leap in terms of thoughtfulness, maturity, and complex ambiguities. Musically, too, it was a substantial leap forward, with intricate folk-rock arrangements that reflected the increasing influence of Dylan and the Byrds. The group and George... Read More

Help! - UK
Artist: The Beatles
Community Score: 7.88

Considering that Help! functions as the Beatles' fifth album and as the soundtrack to their second film -- while filming, they continued to release non-LP singles on a regular basis -- it's not entirely surprising that it still has some of the weariness of Beatles for Sale. Again, they pad the album with covers, but the Bakersfield bounce of... Read More

Tomorrow
Artist: Tomorrow
Community Score: 10.00

Tomorrow's sole album was a solid effort, with quite a few first-rate tracks. "My White Bicycle" was one of the first songs to prominently feature backward guitar phasing, "Real Life Permanent Dream" has engaging English harmonies and sitar riffs, "Revolution" is an infectious hippie anthem, and "Now Your Time Has Come" features intricate... Read More

The Small Faces - DERAM
Artist: The Small Faces
Community Score: 6.00

This CD and the accompanying 1996 reissue of From the Beginning make collecting the Small Faces' Decca sides complicated, containing as it does many tracks that are not on the anthology double disc. The new remastering has turned this into a must-own disc for anyone who enjoys the early Rolling Stones or, especially, the early Who, and wants to... Read More

Stakes & Chips
Artist: The Roulettes

The definitive Roulettes collection, 22 songs covering the group's entire recorded history, with more highlights than one would expect to find. "Bad Time," "I'll Remember Tonight" (which is more familiar to Americans in its cover version by the Mugwumps), "Stubborn Kind of Fellow," and "I Hope He Breaks Your Heart" are priceless, and most of the... Read More

The Pretty Things - UK
Artist: The Pretty Things

The Pretty Things' debut LP was a legendary exercise in anarchy -- 30 minutes into the two days' worth of sessions, their original producer, Jack Baverstock (the head of the label, no less), walked out, and was eventually replaced by a slightly more sympathetic personality in the hopes of salvaging something from the efforts of the band, who,... Read More

Something Else by the Kinks
Artist: The Kinks
Community Score: 8.03

Face to Face was a remarkable record, but its follow-up, Something Else, expands its accomplishments, offering 13 classic British pop songs. As Ray Davies' songwriting becomes more refined, he becomes more nostalgic and sentimental, retreating from the psychedelic and mod posturings that had dominated the rock world. Indeed, Something Else... Read More

Kind of a Drag
Artist: The Buckinghams

Given its source, Kind of a Drag was one of the most extraordinary albums of the 1960s. One expected great, diverse LPs out of the likes of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, among others; by contrast, even the better albums by top garage-punk outfits such as the 13th Floor Elevators generally had a one-note feel to them, or were conspicuously... Read More

From the Beginning
Artist: The Small Faces
Community Score: 9.25

Another remastering of a classic piece of mid-'60s British rock & soul, and as important and enjoyable a record as, say, the Beatles' Rubber Soul or the Stones' Aftermath, even if the album itself was slapped together by Decca in an effort to undercut the band's first new release for rival Immediate Records in 1967. Steve Marriott's honest,... Read More

Where Were You When I Needed You - VARESE SARABANDE BONUS TRACKS
Artist: The Grass Roots

Before the Grass Roots reached the peak of their pop/rock popularity, they were a much more folk-rock-oriented outfit. Indeed, this debut album is a matter of much confusion; apparently the original Grass Roots were pretty much a front for the songwriting team of P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri, who ended up performing on much of the album... Read More

Electric Music for the Mind and Body
Artist: Country Joe & the Fish
Community Score: 10.00

Their full-length debut is their most joyous and cohesive statement and one of the most important and enduring documents of the psychedelic era, the band's swirl of distorted guitar and organ at its most inventive. In contrast to Jefferson Airplane, who were at their best working within conventional song structures, and the Grateful Dead, who... Read More

Magical Mystery Tour
Artist: The Beatles
Community Score: 7.75

The U.S. version of the soundtrack for the Beatles' ill-fated British television special embellished the six songs that were found on the British Magical Mystery Tour double EP with five other cuts from their 1967 singles. (The CD version of the record has now been standardized worldwide as the 11 tracks found on the American version.) The... Read More

Get the Picture?
Artist: The Pretty Things

The band's second album (released Dec. 1965) has not only been remastered from original session tapes, so the group sound like their amps are practically right in your lap, but it's also been expanded to 18 songs with the addition of tracks cut for singles and EP releases from the same sessions. That's enough to recommend it even to casual fans... Read More