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
The Beatles (album) the Byrds. Edwin Faust of "Stylus Magazine" described "The Beatles" as "foremost an album about musical purity (as the album cover and title suggest). Whereas on prior Beatles albums, the band was getting into the habit of mixing several musical genres into a single song, on "The White Album" every song is faithful to its selected genre. The rock n' roll tracks are purely rock n' roll; the folk songs are purely folk; the surreal pop numbers are purely surreal pop; and the experimental piece is purely experimental." The only western instrument available to the group during their Indian visit