"And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make." This probably isn't true for everyone, but when I hear the Beatles sing it, there's no way it couldn't be. The Beatles probably both made and took more love than anyone else in history, and Abbey Road is the perfect swansong for the greatest band ever. This album stands out in their catalog for a few reasons: it's very McCartney heavy, it is more old-school rock'n'roll oriented, the second half flows together like the world's first megamix, and it marks the moment when George Harrison became a great songwriter in his own right. First of all, yes there are more McCartney songs than anyone else's, but no one really gets the short end of the stick here. Lennon's "Come Together" opens the album with the kind of creepy weirdness you could only expect from him. Who is this no-shoeshine-wearin' Coca Cola drinkin' invisible arithmetician? Is it John? Is it the listener? Just some hippie? Why are we coming together? It doesn't matter because you have to sing along regardless. Then there's Ringo, whose "Octopus's Garden" is basically a kids' song in the vein of "Yellow Submarine" but whose innocence belies a load of sincerity, at least to me. I mean, what better way to express your fondness for someone than to say to them: "I'd like to be under the sea in an octopus's garden... with you." ?George's two songs, "Here Come the Sun" and "Something", are undeniable standouts. "Here Come the Sun" is like a wonderful reward for sitting through the madness that ends "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" (to me one of the only skippable moments in the Beatles catalog, or it would be if only skipping it didn't slightly dull the sweetness of "Here Comes the Sun"). And "Something" is probably, to my mind, the greatest, most beautiful love song ever written. My favorite moment: "Goooooolden slumbers fill your eyes... Smiiiiiiiiles AHWait you when you-u rise, slee-eep pretty darlin' do not cry... and I will sing a lullabyee...." and everything that comes after.
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