Revolver

It is nearly impossible to overestimate this record. Revolver straddles with steady legs the divide between the exuberant pop of the '60s beat boom and the experimental outlands that followed. And then pisses over it all. Revolver stands at the summit of western pop music, partly by virtue of its centrality to the musical revolution of the '60s, and partly because its songs have endured as well as any ever written. On cuts like "Taxman" (featuring a fantastically ferocious guitar solo from, of all people, Paul McCartney) and "Doctor Robert," The Beatles' harmony-rich R&B is on such masterful form, the only question remaining is what they would do for act two. The answer: Change Everything. EMI. 2005.