The Beatles by Martin. Because of the paucity of new Beatles music, AllMusic's Unterberger and Bruce Eder suggest the album might be "inessential" but for Harrison's "It's All Too Much": "the jewel of the new songs ... resplendent in swirling Mellotron, larger-than-life percussion, and tidal waves of feedback guitar ... a virtuoso excursion into otherwise hazy psychedelia". Although "Let It Be" was the Beatles' final album release, it was largely recorded before "Abbey Road". The project's impetus came from an idea Martin attributes to McCartney, who suggested they "record an album of new material and rehearse it, then perform it before a
The Beatles' Second Album versions on order to give the album the atmosphere of a live performance. This effect is more noticeable on the tracks culled from "With the Beatles", as those were recorded in two-track stereo. "Allmusic" said that ""The Beatles' Second Album" stands as probably the best pure rock & roll album ever issued of the group's music" because the album "avoid[s] any trace of the pop ballads favored by Paul McCartney that usually slowed down the group's other early albums, and the result was the longest uninterrupted body of then-hard rock & roll and R&B in their entire output." The inclusion