The Beatles, Help! (side A)

Canonical albums like 1965's Help! are always the hardest to write about.  By the time of Help!, the Beatles songwriting had moved clearly away from its simple, high-energy roots and into the more subtle and beautiful style of the group's most canonical era.  The ending cover of Larry Williams's "Dizzy Miss Lizzie" may be the Beatles' final early-rock reference.  Many songs go at a slower tempo, and "Yesterday" introduces the use of a string quartet.  While George Harrison's "I Need You" features one of the less-remembered melodies, its odd guitar arrangement presages the careful studio arrangements that would follow in 1966.  While the sound of Help! is already bright and present, my mid-90s vinyl reissue adds a bit of harshness in the treble frequencies and does not quite capture the balances correctly.  The cover image and font remain, of course, timeless.