The Beatles (album) the album, for "Mojo" magazine, Ian MacDonald wrote that "The Beatles" regularly appears among the top 10 in critics' "best albums of all time" lists, yet it was a work that he deemed "eccentric, highly diverse, and very variable [in] quality".<ref name="MacDonald/WhiteRiot55"></ref> Rob Sheffield, writing in "The Rolling Stone Album Guide" (2004), said that its songs ranged from the Beatles' "sturdiest tunes since "Revolver"" to "self-indulgent filler". He derided tracks including "Revolution 9" and "Helter Skelter", but said that picking personal highlights was "part of the fun" for listeners. Writing for MusicHound in 1999, "Guitar World" editor Christopher Scapelliti described
Revolver (Beatles album) North America, where three of its tracks instead appeared on the June 1966 release "Yesterday and Today". The Beatles recorded the album following a three-month break from professional commitments at the start of 1966, and during a period when London was feted as the era's cultural capital. The songs reflect the influence of psychedelic drugs such as LSD and the increasing sophistication of the Beatles' lyrics to address themes including death and transcendence from material concerns. With no thoughts of reproducing their new material in concert, the band made liberal use of studio techniques such as varispeeding, reversed tapes, close