Top 10 Best Albums of The Beatles

The actual swan song (although Let It Be came out later). The band set aside their fights for one last, perfect album. The production is smoother and more modern than ever, thanks to the Moog synthesizer and George Martin. The medley on side B is the highlight of their collaboration: a seamless stream of melodies and emotions. It's grand, warm and a worthy farewell from the greatest band of all time. In the hearts of the public, often the undisputed number 1.

The album that defined the album market. A conceptual masterpiece that embodied the 'Summer of Love'. The production is lush and layered, a technicolor dream world full of circus sounds and orchestras. The cultural weight of this album is gigantic. It ends with A Day in the Life, perhaps the best song they ever made. It's a triumph of imagination and ambition.

For many critics the absolute peak. Here they said goodbye to touring and dove into the studio to make sounds that had never been heard before. Backwards tapes, loops and string quartets. From the loneliness in Eleanor Rigby to the psychedelic trip of Tomorrow Never Knows; this album changed pop music into art. It's sharp, innovative and sounds futuristic even today.

An extended, disjointed double album that sounds like four solo artists who happen to be in the same space. It jumps from hard rock to ska, folk and avant-garde noise. The tensions in the band create a fascinating, nervous energy. It's a messy masterpiece in which genius lies in the excess and fragmentation. A deep dive into the psyche of the individual members.

The moment when "pot" replaced "pills". Rubber Soul is introspective, warm and organic. The lyrics become more mature and deal with complex relationships rather than hand-holding. With the use of the sitar in Norwegian Wood and the fuzz bass in Think For Yourself, they began using the studio as an instrument. It's an autumn album: melancholic, atmospheric and timelessly beautiful.

The only album that consists entirely of Lennon-McCartney compositions. It captures the hysteria of Beatlemania in a bottle. From that iconic, jingling opening chord, the album bursts with confidence and euphoria. The guitars sound clear and jangly (the 12-string Rickenbacker), a sound that would inspire The Byrds and the entire folk-rock movement. Pop music in its most perfect, energetic form.

Originally a double EP, but released as an album in the US and now canon. This is The Beatles at their most psychedelic and bizarre point. It's a kaleidoscope of colors, strange sounds and surreal lyrics. With masterpieces like Strawberry Fields Forever and Penny Lane (added to the LP version), it contains some of their very best songs. It's chaotic and disjointed, but suffused with a magical, druggy haze.

The bridge between their early pop years and the experimental phase. Although the first half served as a soundtrack for their film, you hear here for the first time the influences of folk (Bob Dylan) and classical music seeping in. The title track is a disguised cry for attention from Lennon, while McCartney with Yesterday provided the blueprint for the modern pop ballad. It's the sound of a band beginning to outgrow its boyish jacket.

The controversial farewell of The Beatles. Intended as a "back to basics" project, it became a document of a band falling apart. The atmosphere is at times messy and tensions are palpable, but the peaks are towering. With songs like Get Back and the title track Let It Be, the band shows that despite internal struggle, their undeniable genius remains. It's a raw and honest portrait of four friends losing each other.

The album that shook the world awake. Recorded in one crazy session of just under thirteen hours, it captures the raw, unpolished energy of the band as they sounded in the Cavern Club. You can hear the hurry and the hunger. It ends with John Lennon screaming his voice to shreds in Twist and Shout; a moment of pure rock-'n-roll primordial power that has never been matched.