Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Take A Trip
The first American releases of the Beatles' albums were often very different than the original British versions. Capitol would remove songs and then combine them with hit singles to create additional albums for the public to gobble up. Thus albums like The Beatles '65, Yesterday & Today & Something New were created and albums like Rubber Soul & Revolver were altered. Magical Mystery Tour, the soundtrack to their bizarre TV movie, was actually altered to the benefit of the American record buying public. In the UK, the album was issued as an EP, containing only the first six songs. The title track sets the premises of the movie and is followed by the pensive "Fool On The Hill". The instrumental "Flying" holds the distinction as being the only song to give songwriting credit to all four band members. "Blue Jay Way" is a trippy George Harrison number and "Your Mother Should Know" is a big band ballroom number. "I Am The Walrus" is one of the most lyrically complex Beatle songs and one of their best. The last six songs were added to the US release and gathers the band's singles from 1967. The two-sided hit "Penny Lane" & "Strawberry Fields Forever" is the best one-two punch in musical history. Magical Mystery Tour is a forgettable movie, but a memorable album.
Rating: - A Wonderful collection of Psychadelic Singles
Magical Mystery Tour is one of my favorite albums. The songs the Beatles(mostly Paul) wrote specifically for their first self-made movie were coupled with their excellent 1967 psychadelic pop singles("Penny Lane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "All You Need Is Love", "Baby You're A Rich Man", and "Hello Goodbye") to make an enjoyable and bizarre album. I always felt this album was underated. I mean are "Flying","Blue Jay Way" and "Your Mother Should Know" so bad? There are plenty of tracks I skip over on Rubber Soul("What Goes On") or Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band("Within You Without You") but those albums are faultless, perfect, legendary albums that can't be put down, or so the pretensious critics say. Both "Flying"(written by all four Beatles!) and George Harrison's "Blue Jay Way" are pleasant and relaxing tunes. Very surreal and psychadelic. The title track is an exuberant celebration of the tour the Beatles are about to take you on. Paul's "The Fool On The Hill" is one his most charming and popular songs. His "Your Mother Should Know" is an another delightful innoculous pop knockoff. The melodic and highly commercial "Hello Goodbye" is the perfect cheery pop song. Vocally, Paul gives it his all, as usual. Lennon was mad that his brilliant hi-tech symphonic pop masterpiece, "I Am The Walrus" was the B-side to "Hello GoodBye". But there is a distinction between a hit single and a piece of art(which is of course subjective to the listener). "Penny Lane" and "Strawberry Fields Forever" are the finest songs on this album. Both were recorded during the Pepper sessions in early '67 (George Martin later said not putting these songs on Pepper was one of the biggest mistakes of his life). "Penny Lane" is a layered "pocket symphony". Paul sings about Penny Lane while horns joyfully blare. "Stawberry Fields Forever" is a surreal yet melancholy song, beautifully song by Lennon. "Baby You're A Rich Man" is another underrated tune(it's also included on the 1999 Yellow Submarine Song Track CD). "All You Need Is Love" is an anthem of the 1960's, and lavishly produced pop classic.
Rating:  - An Invitation from The Beatles...
This soundtrack to the Beatles' bizarre and somewhat indulgent TV film of the same name is designed the same way their earlier soundtrack albums were made -- the first half of songs are from the film, with the second half made up of non-film tracks. The only difference here is that those non-film songs were all released as 45RPM singles at the time. And in England, the film songs were actually released on an EP, not a full-length album. So technically this disc is one long single, sort of a 'best of 1967' for the band.
Even though the songs are even more heavily influenced by psychedelia, the band still keep things accessible; their attention to songcraft and penning singles is still there. Tracks like Magical Mystery Tour, I Am the Walrus, Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields Forever, All You Need Is Love, and Fool On the Hill, are all classics. The only weak spots are the instrumental (Flying) which sounds somewhat underdeveloped, and Blue Jay Way, which meanders a bit at the end. All in all, a good album for the band. The film itself may have been hard to swallow, but this album goes down quite well.
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