Number 1: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Album: Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

Artist: The Beatles

Year: 1967

Information: This album, released during the Summer of Love, is unanimously praised and celebrated. Treated like one of the most (or the most) important musical creations in pop culture history. The album is still held in high regard today and remains one of the best-selling albums of all time.

High points: The best song on this album (or, maybe, in The Beatles entire catalog,) is A Day in the Life. A true McCartney and Lennon collaboration, the first verses are distinctly Lennon, telling of death and newspaper stories, with a tinge of psychedelia. Then, it turns distinctly McCartney, having a nice melody and being overall joyful. Telling the morning routine of the everyday worker, it soon fades back to Lennon. After a big crescendo, it turns into a large, singular, ominous, and mysterious chord, which is played on three pianos and one harmonium. This E major chord rings out for approximately forty seconds, having the volume raised gradually to the point where you can hear the sound of a squeaking chair and rustling papers.

Low points: Although there really is no bad songs on this album, the weakest song, in my opinion, is Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!. Don't get me wrong, I personally love this song, but when compared to the other songs contained within this album, I don't feel as though this song is on the same level as the others. The song is kind of pointless, it's a description of acts for a circus, itself being based on a poster that John found.

Is it great? Incredibly so.

This album is filled with meticulous detail and attention paid to the songs. Generally, the lyrics are well written and are just pleasing and easy to listen to. In a landscape of auto-tune and unimpressive music, this album is a nice refresher of a decade and musical genre at it's peak.

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When I look back at "A Day in the Life," I almost find a deeper meaning to the lyrics. It seems like the song shows the different environments in which John and Paul grew up. Notice how, when John Lennon sings, he seems to be an outsider looking in at the happenings of the day, detached from the average people. After Lennon left for the care of his aunt, he grew up having money and things bought for him. When Paul McCartney sings, he's part of the day, he is the working man. Getting up every morning, trudging through the daily routine to go to work. Paul, mirroring his song, grew up in a working class family.

Maybe these things are unrelated, but I just happened to find this connection and it seemed substantial.