My Abbey Road Review

         There is no question that countless millions of people are passionate about music. Being a worldwide art form, music brings people together, expresses emotional and creative ideas, and celebrates cultural and religious beliefs. Many people often say, “Music touches my soul.” Or, “music changed my life.” And when I listened to The Beatles album ‘Abbey Road’ for the first time on a chilly and eerily beautiful autumn night at the age of seventeen, I came to truly understand what those people really meant. On that night, with all of its haunting beauty, elaborate harmonies, and its optimism and melancholy peacefully dueling, this brilliant work of art brought forth emotions inside me both subtle and profound leaving me totally fulfilled and content with the world around me. It had touched my soul and changed my life. ‘Abbey Road’ is an inspirational, technically brilliant, emotion inducing masterpiece.
         An outstanding farewell, ‘Abbey Road’ was the final album recorded by The Beatles. The album itself is a surprising mixture of perfectly penned prose over lush guitar and bass melodies, ranging from gritty and soulful blues epics, to tranquil and abstract orchestral odysseys. For me, to listen to this album is to live inside of it for a short while. Timelessly recreating that warm, organic and reminiscent mood, the album seems to breathe life into itself with its swift harmonies, and its heart beating with every melodic riff of the bass.
         Winding through each verse and chorus with continuous awe, I always find myself transported back in time to when I first truly heard this great album. The cold autumn turning to winter in a special place in the mountains, where all the colors of the world temporarily seem to ebb and flow in syncopation with the music itself. A song such as “Something” allows me to conjure perfect romance, while “Here Comes the Sun” appeases any doubt or fear. Fantastic psychedelic images in my head and bittersweet memories during “I Want You” permeate my mind as I meditate on the beautiful sounds wafting through my old speakers like thick smoke from incense. Listening to the song “Because”, I see the world paint itself as the sun begins to fall into the mountains, conjuring every emotion in my soul. I can almost reach the spot in my head where the ingredients of beautiful dreams are stored, so real yet undefined.
         Breaking into a medley, the last half of the album is a compelling journey through soft and lonely musical places, as well as fun-filled rockers and glorious chant mantras. Interesting and different each time through, the medley seems to ask me, “How do you want to listen this time?” “Are you going to come and play along? Or continue on another undiscovered path?” The track, “Sun King” musically heals my mind like a subtle painkiller preparing me for entry into classic avant- garde rockers like "Mean Mr. Mustard" and “Polythene Pam". The aptly named final track “The End” is a hair raising hard-rock jam session that leaves me breathless. Suddenly ending on an exquisite harmony section The Beatles leave with this phrase, “And in the end…the love you take…is equal to the love you make”
         While listening to this album, I get swept away in its delicate beauty, and moved by the hard hitting tracks. I am left feeling mentally and emotionally nourished by the mere forty-eight minutes of recorded bliss that is ‘Abbey Road’. I never underestimate the value of this musically inspiring emotional masterwork. It’s comforting to know that this timeless work of brilliance will always be there ready for me, waiting in its slumber somewhere between imagination and reality.