Sadly, "Abbey Road" was the last album the Beatles would ever make...but if you're going out, this is a blueprint for how it's done.
The Lads dropped or submerged all the rancor that had crippled the "Get Back" project and got down to the business of making a 'studio' album again, something at which they had no peer. The result is a snapshot not just of its time, but of just how far the Boys had come musically in just the 6 or so years since "Please Please Me". Playing those two albums back to back is just astonishing. The musicianship and songwriting have gone lightyears ahead, as has the studiocraft.
What about the tunes? "Abbey Road" finally puts a spotlight on the emerging songwriting talents of George Harrison, who contributes two of his finest songs ever, "Something" and"Here Comes the Sun". Frank Sinatra called "Something", "the greatest love song of the 20th century"...and he also said that it was his favorite 'Lennon & McCartney' song. Duh!
Lennon ponies up with "Come Together" and "I Want You (She's So Heavy) on side one, and the lovely "Because" on side two...and a couple of character shots during the medley. "Because" features, in my opinion, the finest harmonies on any Beatles record.
Macca has a typically wide variety of tunes here, including the song "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"...most Beatles fans are split on this song...I think it's a fun throwaway, not that that's a bad thing...the real 'meat & taters' for Paul on this album is the side two medley, or as he & George Martin called it, 'the Big One". Starting with "You Never Give Me Your Money", and with the exception of "Sun King", Polythene Pam" and "Mean Mr. Mustard", all of the rest of the medley is Macca's...is it pompous to say that this medley is the finest piece of recorded rock-n-roll music ever? Maybe, but it's certainly not a stretch either. It's as close to a rock-n-roll symphony as you could find anywhere, and that's a good thing.