Revolver (Beatles album) transcendentalist lyrics, all kinds of rhythmic and harmonic surprises, and a filter that made John Lennon sound like God singing through a foghorn". In the 2004 edition of "The Rolling Stone Album Guide", Rob Sheffield wrote that "Revolver" found the Beatles "at the peak of their powers, competing with one another because nobody else could touch them"; he described it as "the best album the Beatles ever made, which means the best album by anybody". Writing for PopMatters that year, David Medsker said that "Revolver" showed the four band members "peaking at the exact same time", and he deemed it
The Beatles' 1966 tour of Germany, Japan and the Philippines their longtime manager, Brian Epstein, and make the decision to end their career as live performers that year. By contrast, the stay in Tokyo established an enduring bond between the Beatles and Japan, where each of the band members visited or performed in the decades following the group's break-up. Brian Epstein, the Beatles' manager, had intended that 1966 would follow the format of the previous two years, in which the Beatles had made a feature film with an accompanying soundtrack album, toured in North America and select countries during the summer months, and then recorded a second album for a