Revolver (Beatles album) group collective since 1962, and gave them an unprecedented amount of time to prepare for a new album. Writing in "The Beatles Forever", Nicholas Schaffner cites 1966 as the start of the band's "'psychedelic' period" and adds: "That adjective implies not only the influence of certain mind-altering chemicals, but also the freewheeling spectrum of wide-ranging colors that their new music seemed to evoke." Music journalist Carol Clerk describes "Revolver" as having been "decisively informed by acid", following John Lennon and George Harrison's continued experimentation with the drug LSD since the spring of 1965.<ref name="Clerk/Uncut"> Available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required).</ref>
The Beatles (album) is what The Beatles are on about. Created by, creating for, their age."<ref name="MacDonald/WhiteRiot"></ref> Although he dismissed "Revolution 9" as a "pretentious" example of "idiot immaturity", the "NME"s Alan Smith declared "God Bless You, Beatles!" to the majority of the album. Jann Wenner of "Rolling Stone" called it "the history and synthesis of Western music", and the group's best album yet. Wenner contended that they were allowed to appropriate other styles and traditions into rock music because their ability and identity were "so strong that they make it uniquely theirs, and uniquely the Beatles. They are so good that they