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Published Feb 11, 2026, 4:54 PM EST
Jeremy has more than 2300 published articles on Collider to his name, and has been writing for the site since February 2022. He's an omnivore when it comes to his movie-watching diet, so will gladly watch and write about almost anything, from old Godzilla films to gangster flicks to samurai movies to classic musicals to the French New Wave to the MCU... well, maybe not the Disney+ shows.
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It’s almost easier to rank the imperfect albums by The Beatles, since of the 13 albums that can be counted as making up the band’s discography, like, seven aren’t perfect. Six might well be. And that might sound non-committal to say “albums that can be counted,” but the way The Beatles had their albums released was a bit confusing, what with there being UK albums and then some slightly different U.S. ones. Also, one of their albums below was released as both an EP and a full-length album, but the full-length album is being counted here. Also muddying things is the existence of Yellow Submarine, which is sort of one of the 13 albums mentioned before? But not entirely. It’s just as much a George Martin album as it is a Beatles album, but either way, that one’s definitely not perfect, so not too many more words have to be spent on it.
The following albums, though, are all masterful. And you probably know that already, so what follows is some preaching to the choir, but these albums really are among the best of all time, so preaching about them doesn’t really get old. It’s the usual suspects, and sure, some of the most popular rock releases of all time, but it’s The Beatles, and it’s The Beatles at their best. Doesn’t get too much better than the best of the best (and not a single Pete in sight).
6 'Magical Mystery Tour' (1967)
That previously alluded to release that kind of blurred the line between EP and LP was Magical Mystery Tour, but wait! Things technically get a little more confusing, as half the LP was a soundtrack to the very strange (and not great) TV movie of the same name, while the second half of that LP was made up of singles that hadn’t appeared on other albums. “Strawberry Fields Forever,” “Penny Lane,” and maybe also “All You Need Is Love” are probably the three best songs on the album, and they appear on the second half.
That being said, you can’t cast aside the first half, thanks to the title track, “The Fool on the Hill,” and “I Am the Walrus” (with “The Fool on the Hill” being surprisingly moving, and “I Am the Walrus” being a wonderfully nightmarish and surreal track). But obviously you can’t discount either side of this album, because it’s perfect, or close to it, and you can’t have a perfect album that’s one amazing half and then one half that’s a bit less than amazing. Anyway, Magical Mystery Tour feels close to representing The Beatles at their best, but also, there are five other albums by The Beatles that are arguably better, so can it really be them at their best? For just about any other artist, an album this good would have to represent them at their best, but The Beatles were pretty much on another level entirely, both compared to their contemporaries and all the bands/artists they ultimately inspired. But, again, this probably isn't news to you.
5 'Revolver' (1966)
Revolver is an incredibly consistent album, and it’s also a rather striking and sometimes unnerving one, with all these factors being a reason why it’s the go-to cool pick for the title of “best album by The Beatles.” Maybe the person writing this just isn't cool enough, but still, Revolver is worth considering and shouting out as a masterpiece, even if it’s not one’s personal favorite. Again, the consistency here is key, and it’s also the album that bridges the early sound of The Beatles with their more psychedelic later sound quite perfectly.
Revolver probably sounded alarming (in ways both good and bad, depending on the listener) back in 1966.
Released in 1966, the same year The Beatles stopped performing live and started messing around with what they could do in the studio a bit more, Revolver is experimental without spiraling out of control ambition-wise. The Beatles would very willingly spiral out of control and go genuinely crazy a couple of years later, but by then, it wasn’t as surprising that they were willing to go all-out. Revolver, though, probably sounded alarming (in ways both good and bad, depending on the listener) back in 1966. It’s easy to imagine it as a shock to the system sort of album, and it’s also wild to think that, at the time of writing, it’s six decades old. “Ahead of its time” is a big old understatement.
4 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' (1967)
If Revolver is the cool person’s pick when it comes to crowning which The Beatles album is best, then Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is probably the go-to uncool pick, or the most obvious, in other words. It’s sometimes held up as the transitional Beatles album more so than Revolver, though it came out later. It was a bit more lush, though, and perhaps more approachable, too, so in really making that psychedelic sort of rock more accepted and palatable, it has a good reason for being as well-recognized and iconic as it is.
It’s also hard to look past that album cover, which is… you know, it’s the album cover for Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Easy to look past is that this really wasn’t as influential or as forward-thinking a concept album as some people like to claim it is, because the concept is ditched after a couple of songs and then sort of returned to near the end. But that was enough for its time, maybe. Also, pretty much all is forgiven when you end an album with a song as grand, ambitious, and bold as “A Day in the Life.” Now, people sometimes like to look down on Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band for being a bit overrated, but few people will argue this closing track isn't one of the finest songs The Beatles ever made (indeed, you probably won’t struggle to find people hailing it as the band’s very best).
3 'The Beatles' (1968)
The wildness of Revolver pales in comparison to the wildness of The Beatles, the self-titled album sometimes referred to as The White Album. That wildness doesn’t automatically make it better, but the highs here are possibly ever higher than the highs on Revolver. Hell, the best songs here are about as high as you can go, with The Beatles genuinely having tons of music that does showcase the band at their very best.
Maybe you could argue that the more questionable songs here do the opposite, yet The Beatles wouldn’t be The Beatles if it didn’t take as many risks as it did. The weird and maybe even questionable songs add something, and it’s also hard not to respect a rock album that branches out into this many different genres, sometimes almost feeling like each new song is in either a different style or another type of rock music altogether. Some of this album isn't even rock; not recognizably so, at least. This one has stayed baffling in the best of ways since 1968, and really does have a bit of everything found within its 30 tracks spanning more than 90 minutes.
2 'Rubber Soul' (1965)
Released one year before Revolver, Rubber Soul wasn’t as radical a new sound for The Beatles, but it was a good deal mellower (and, arguably, more interesting) than the rock sound that had defined their first five albums. Now, that’s said at the risk of it sounding like those albums are being dismissed, but they're not. If anything, the early run of Beatles albums is a bit underrated, compared to their more acclaimed later ones. That might sound a bit rich, considering all the later ones are being celebrated here, but it’s more just that the early ones have some flaws, albeit while still being largely great.
Rubber Soul, though, is entirely great. Almost. There are a couple of songs here that are slightly questionable, but the majority of this album is an effortless and genuinely moving listen. It might be the most emotionally rich and introspective of all the albums The Beatles made, so if you value, to a particularly great extent, that kind of thing in the music you listen to, then Rubber Soul could well be your favorite album by The Beatles. It’s honestly a reasonable pick, going back to that eternal and ever-difficult question of “which Beatles album is the best?”
1 'Abbey Road' (1969)
Alright, Abbey Road. It’s Abbey Road. This feels like the easiest one to single out as the best if you're trying to be objective. It’s amazingly consistent, it has numerous songs that sound timeless, it flows impeccably well, and it’s got ambition and experimentation regarding its second half, with the medley of short tracks that all flow into each other, and kind of serve as one massive song.
And then there’s also the emotional punch of Abbey Road, being the last album The Beatles recorded, even if Let It Be was ultimately the final one released (born of the Get Back sessions which preceded the recording sessions for Abbey Road). And then there’s the second most iconic Beatles album cover found on Abbey Road, or maybe it’s right on par with Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (flip a coin if you have to). If you found someone who’d somehow never heard a song by The Beatles before, and you had only one album to use to try and convert them, you'd probably have to pick Abbey Road. It’s the most well-rounded and difficult to fault, and not that any of the aforementioned albums have aged poorly, by any means (not the albums as wholes; certain songs, on the other hand… hmm), but Abbey Road has probably aged the best.
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