The idea that The Beatles' Abbey Road might have received anything but great reviews is fairly laughable, but it was reality back in 1969 when the record first dropped. There was an absolute slew of criticism heaped upon the album, with many targeting its use of artificial sounds which were supposedly inauthentic. London Times critic William Mann described the album as gimmicky whereas Rolling Stone magazine said it was complicated instead of complex, creating a sound that could not possibly exist outside the studio. Life magazine critic Albert Goldman wrote perhaps the most retrospectively off-the-mark assessment, saying that Abbey Road was not one of the Beatles' great albums. At this point it would be fairly redundant to detail the album's subsequent legacy. To say it's often regarded as the Beatles' magnum opus and one of the best albums of all time is just the tip of the iceberg.
