White Album (Rmst)

Each song on the sprawling double album The Beatles is an entity to itself, as the band touches on anything and everything it can. This makes for a frustratingly scattershot record or a singularly gripping musical experience, depending on your view, but what makes the socalled White Album interesting is its mess. Never before had a rock record been so selfreflective, or so ironic; the Beach Boys sendup "Back in the U.S.S.R." and the British blooze parody "Yer Blues" are delivered straightfaced, so it's never clear if these are affectionate tributes or wicked satires. Lennon turns in two of his best ballads with "Dear Prudence" and "Julia"; scours the Abbey Road vaults for the musique concr