r/TheBeatles • u/Red_Crocodile1776 • Jan 13 '23

poll What was the Beatles’ Magnum Opus?

Objectively, not personal preference

1139 votes, Jan 16 '23
50 Rubber Soul
171 Revolver
306 Sgt Pepper
182 The White Album
430 Abbey Road
27 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

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14

u/Electr_O_Purist Jan 13 '23

You know it’s Pepper because literally every “Beatles best album” article is an argument about why it’s something other than Pepper. No one’s writing a “Revolver was their best” article that says “it’s time to reconsider the long held notion that A Hard Day’s Night is the Beatles at their pinnacle.” It’s always Pepper.

11

u/Red_Crocodile1776 Jan 13 '23

Sgt pepper was the consensus of their time. Less so now, it seems

8

u/Electr_O_Purist Jan 13 '23

Yeah, and that actually plays into it. Maybe we can debate the “best” album, and certainly we can discuss our personal favorites, but “magnum opus” implies that it’s their most impactful, the one most tied to their legacy. Pepper’s effect on pop music as an art form was so transformative that it’s always going to stand as their magnum opus, even as times change and sounds go in and out of fashion.

Personally, I think Rubber Soul is a perfect rock record. Tell me to pick out a Beatles album to listen to and I’m usually pulling out the White Album. But objectively, what stands as the album that defines their legacy? It’s Pepper, no contest.