9.0
The exact pivot from pop group to serious artists. Recorded in just four weeks, Rubber Soul distilled everything the band had absorbed — Dylan's confessional songwriting, folk, R&B, Indian classical — into something that felt completely new. Norwegian Wood is folk-pop with a sitar and a lyric dark enough to make you sit up straight. In My Life is one of the great meditative songs in rock history. Michelle earned McCartney a Grammy. Nowhere Man is Lennon at his most honestly self-critical. Brian Wilson heard this album and immediately started work on Pet Sounds. One of the most consequential records ever made.
