The new “Rubber Soul” box set lets us hear The Beatles becoming The Beatles

When it comes to The Beatles, “Rubber Soul” is the album. They may reach arguably loftier artistic heights with “Revolver,” “Sgt. Pepper,” “The White Album,” or “Abbey Road” — take your pick — but “Rubber Soul” embodies the group’s decisive turn towards self-conscious greatness. As far as The Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson was concerned, “Rubber Soul” marked the invention of the album as a long-playing musical format. And more than six decades later, with the release of the latest Beatles box set, “Rubber Soul” — incredible as it may seem — has never sounded better.

The album’s title harkens back to “I’m Down,” the B-side of the “Help!” single. At the end of the first take of “I’m Down,” Paul McCartney famously quipped that the band sounded like “plastic soul,” a joking but revealing phrase that captures The Beatles’ relationship to American rhythm and blues. Their British approach to R&B prized tightness, clarity, and buoyant precision over the loose, improvisational grit often associated with American soul. “Plastic soul,” then, becomes a conceptual shorthand for The Beatles’ chameleonic ability to absorb a genre’s core qualities and refashion it into something distinctly their own.

That idea became the musical firmament for “Rubber Soul,” which was recorded in a tight four weeks across 17 studio sessions and released in December 1965. Fittingly, The Beatles’ new box set captures the fervor which characterized the LP’s original construction, including early takes of a spate of classic songs ranging from “Day Tripper” and “We Can Work It Out” to “Girl,” “Nowhere Man,” and “Michelle.” Being able to listen to various attempts as the band and producer George Martin build “I’m Looking Through You” from the ground up, for example, is a wonder to behold.

As with so many of The Beatles’ signature albums, “Rubber Soul” proves to be an embarrassment of riches. The box set reaches its apex with a generous three takes of “Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown),” one of John Lennon’s most enduring and sophisticated compositions, as well as the debut of George Harrison’s sitar, the microtonal instrument at the heart of Eastern music. Meanwhile, with “In My Life,” listeners are treated to multiple takes in which Martin transforms the song’s Bach-like keyboard interlude from a Hammond organ solo into a piano flourish for the ages.

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Much has been made about the box set’s inclusion of “Little Girl,” a previously lost Lennon demo. In many ways, it is difficult to associate the song, with its sophomoric romantic lyrics, with the “Rubber Soul” era. The composition’s primitive lyrics seem to place its genesis much earlier, likely around the time of “With The Beatles” or “A Hard Day’s Night.” But at the same time, listeners will hear what sounds like the early strains of “I’m Only Sleeping,” a standout track from “Revolver.” In this vein, “Little Girl” fully belongs on the “Rubber Soul” box set, a collection that points towards the bold sense of artistry already taking hold of the band. In its finest moments, the box set captures the astonishing level of musical development that will energize the remainder of The Beatles’ career, a period of unparalleled pop-cultural ambition and stylistic experimentation.