The Beatles, Revolver (1966)

This is a manic-depressive Beatles. When the album begins, it seems as though they're merely out of touch. The leadoff is "Taxman," George Harrison's lament that he must pay a lot of taxes now that he's a superstar. But then "Eleanor Rigby," "I'm Only Sleeping," and "She Said She Said," where John Lennon says he was only ever happy when he was a child.

The manic side of this is, of course, "Yellow Submarine," "Doctor Robert," "Got To Get You Into My Life." Hearing the sad songs counterpoised with the happy ones, I wonder what it must have been like to be a general music lover and putting this album on the turntable. The sixties, man.