Richard said:
Another one of The Beatles' quirky, not quite all there, odd-bod songs, but it's a brilliant one nonetheless, almost peerless in comparison to other music from the era - 1967-68, except for perhaps music by The Kinks. The Beatles music at this stage of their career was very experimental, using all sorts of interesting instruments and vocal ideas and themes. 'Fixing A Hole' extends the idea of the psychedelic movement right from the start with the line "I'm fixing a hole where the rain comes in, to stop my mind from wondering...", "..where it will go". Sparking ideas of heavy LSD sessions, probably just sitting around watching water come in through the roof, trying to resolve the problem instead of just sitting there getting wet. The record, in that sense then, is pretty pro-active and positive. And like so much of The Beatles work is shows the massive amount of energy that was stored up by the band. The Beatles never shoe gaze that's for sure, and this quirky, boppy track adds a fresh feel, a lemon juice twang to any record collection or play list. The track starts off with the now famous fairground organs, followed by those lines about the rain coming in. It's a light, breezy, perhaps even a rather choppy cruise of a record. Some nice but rather basic clangy guitar work chugs things along, light percussion tattles the track forward, and those vocals give us all the real glossy audible vibes. It's a simple track in fact, led mostly by the vocals and lyrics, but nonchalantly beguiling - you don't need to do much to like or be charmed by this record. The album, well what can be said about that? Brilliant. Another Beatles gem. A masterpiece. Any more superlatives required, invent them yourself.