#61 - The Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

The album starts of with a well-known Beach Boys classic, "Wouldn't it be nice", and after that it takes a turn that almost the whole world describes as revolutionary, brimming with creativity, exploring beyond pop-music etc. To be honest, I can't hear much of that. Most of the other songs are slower, they still have the core of the trademark Beach Boys sound with the harmonic singing, but the songs don't get stuck. Also in terms of new sounds I can't really hear anything revolutionary. It sounds very similar to earlier Beach Boys albums. Maybe you have to read about this album to know what to listen for, but to my uneducated ear, this doesn't sound half way as great as it's supposed to be.

#60 - The Beatles - Revolver *

This album fights with another one over the title "my favorite Beatles album", I'm sure I'll write about the other one, too. It's a creative kaleidoscope with songs so different in style and atmosphere, with sounds unheard of before and with ideas and structures new to the rock/pop world at the time. There's a dark and beautiful piece with a strings only instrumentation ("Eleanor rigby"), a song with the sitar as the main instrument ("Love you to), the first occurence of a reversed instrument ("I'm only sleeping"), a trippy song staying on one chord, but introducing strange sounds much ahead of this time ("Tomorrow never knows"), and besides all that, a number of wonderful ballads ("Here, there and everywhere"), pop ("Good day, sunshine") and rock ("She said, she said")songs and even a by now classic children song ("Yellow submarine"). This album has it all and it's very near perfect with only one song that doesn't give anything to me ("Dr. Robert").

#59 - The Who - My Generation

The title track is the center of this album, a new, exciting and rough sound that must have been revolutionary at the time. Other songs sound new and experimental too, "The ox", an instrumental, sounds like a sandbox where they test what they can do with their instruments. Some songs sound rather ordinary compared to the mentioned ones, and there are no other outstanding songs, but the album sounds good and is a diverse pleasant experience.

#58 - Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited

I have to admit, after I listened to the first song "Like a rolling stone", I immediately listened to it again, and after I finished listening to the album, I listened to it a third time. It's a mezmerizing song gripping you with the yelled desperation in the first chorus line "How does it feel?" and even though it goes on forever, you want to hear it again.This is a big step forward if I compare it with earlier songs, and even though other songs are not that strong, the album is still overall much better then previous albums, it merges the old Dylan folk with modern rock sounds and expands in new structures like the aforementioned song which was a groundbraking 6 minutes long, unheard of for a single, the last track being even 11 minutes long. In the rock arrangements Dylan's voice is not as present and sharp anymore, making the album much more enjoyable. Now I'm looking forward to the next album from him.

#57 - The Byrd - Mr. Tambourine Man

The album title is also the name of the first track and the first hit single for the Byrds. It's a Bob Dylan cover, but the songs sound very different.
The Byrds-typical guitar, the beautiful harmonic singing, all this makes for a trademark sound that re-emerges in all other songs of the album, some more Dylan and other covers as well as own songs. Through this the album sounds very consistent, but it is never boring. In many ways it sounds very modern and was probably an influence for many artists to come.

#56 - Bert Jansch - Bert Jansch

This is a beautiful folk album with wonderful skilled guitar playing and a nice voice. There are no hits on this album and no songs that stand out, but they're all very good and I liked listening to them. In comparison to Bob Dylan's work this album sounds much more relaxing, with a higher emphasis on the guitar work and a voice that goes much easier into my ear.

#55 - The Beatles - Rubber Soul *

The 4 men on the cover look a little tired. And that's also my impression when I listen to this album. Don't get me wrong, it's not like there aren't any great songs on it ("Norwegian wood", "Nowhere man"), but the overall atmosphere is just a little calmer than in albums before this, a litte tired. The songs vary in quality, there are some that just can't keep up with hits like "Michelle" or "In my life", which features a baroque-like solo by producer George Martin, which was a new thing for a head-shaking beat band, just as the sitar in "Norwegian wood". Also remarkable is the increasing usage of acoustic instruments, probably because of influences like Bob Dylan. The album is a big step towards the coming more experimental albums.