"If The White Album had been whittled down to 45 minutes, it would have gone down as one of The Beatles' definitive statements": Decades on, The Beatles' White Album is still igniting pub arguments

The cracks were becoming fault lines as The Beatles chased down their hefty post-Pepper double album, with the band members scattering throughout Abbey Road to work in isolation, only convening when there was a warm gun to their heads.

It follows that the White Album has a lack of cohesion, while there’s a strong case it would have been twice the record at half the length (begone Rocky Raccoon and Revolution 9).

Even so, the record wins back brownie points with the tearing Chuck Berry-meets-Beach Boys Back In The U.S.S.R., McCartney’s delicate I Will and the Clapton-bolstered While My Guitar Gently Weeps. With better quality control, it might have been their finest hour.

In 2018, it was reissued as a deluxe edition, with all 30 album tracks newly mixed by producer Giles Martin and mix engineer Sam Okell in stereo and 5.1 surround audio. Also included were 27 early acoustic demos along with 50 session takes – most of which had been previously unreleased.

"The Beatles can safely afford to be eclectic, deliberately borrowing and accepting any outside influence or idea or emotion, because their own musical ability and personal/spiritual/artistic identity is so strong that they make it uniquely theirs, and uniquely the Beatles. They are so good that they not only expand the idiom, but they are also able to penetrate it and take it further." (Rolling Stone)

"It does present the Fab Four in a more gritty light, which is refreshing given the popular mind’s eye has The Beatles as either four mop-tops singing ‘She Loves You’s or in fluorescent psychedelic attire singing about peace and love and walruses. The Beatles is what talented musicians outgrowing their band sounds like: it’s indulgent, unfocused, at times disinterested, in others inspired, all underpinned with the gnawing feeling that all involved aren’t having that much fun anymore." (The Independent)

"The White Album is a breaking point, one which begins to feel a tad overwhelming at times, more by the sheer volume of material at hand, rather than its quality. One of the few albums where plenty of energy is needed. It remains one of the most demanding and most satisfying albums available." (Cult Following)

Dale Munday: The beginning of the end for the Fab Four. Recorded amidst a myriad of internal struggles, which even saw Ringo quit the band.

Indeed, only 16 of the tracks can count all four members on them.

It is often argued that it would have made an excellent single album. That may be a valid point, but for me, I like the chaos and the inconsistency, with no two tracks the same.

Being a fan of musique concrete, I'll even speak in defence of Revolution 9. This whole album is a trip and must have caused a stir at the time, which hasn't stopped it from becoming one of their biggest-selling albums. 10/10

Greg Schwepe: If there ever was an example of an album transporting me like a Way Back Machine, it’s the White Album by The Beatles. Music takes you back and puts you where you might have heard it first.

When I was six or seven-ish, my Mom’s youngest brother came to live with us. This uncle, about eight years my senior, spent time sharing a bedroom with his spunky nephew (that would be me!) until he decided that the basement offered more privacy for a high schooler, and part of it became his bedroom. This cool uncle also had a stereo, lots of albums, and was an incredible musician. And one album I heard a lot on that stereo emanating from the basement was the White Album. With a massive dose of osmosis, that album became part and parcel of my early library of musical knowledge.

Back In The U.S.S.R. Heard it coming from the basement. Why Don’t We Do It In The Road.” Heard it while cutting through the basement to get to the tool bench. What were they doing in the road? Rocky Raccoon. Heard it while building a model car in my corner of the basement. Oh-La-Di, Ob-La-Da. Heard it coming from the basement and wondered what exactly is a “barrow” and why did Desmond need it? Embedded in my brain, I say!

So now that we’re done with my usual unneeded extended back story, we have the album at hand. The Beatles, being a prolific group with four songwriters, probably had no problem filling four sides of vinyl.

The usual case against the double album is that it can be too wandering, not focused, filled with too many parodies and other random stuff. But can’t that also be the case for a double album? Heck, just throw it all on there and make it a great adventure. I'm looking at you, Revolution 9. This album has flat-out the hardest Beatles rocker of all time, Helter Skelter. And the greatest fingerpicking guitar song of all time, Blackbird. If you’re a guitar player, you’ve tried your hand at this.

While Lennon and McCartney may be known as the heavy-hitting songwriters, George Harrison throws down the gauntlet with While My Guitar Gently Weeps. "Hey, I’ll write a great song and get Eric Clapton to play on it. Take that!”

The White Album is a milestone. This is a Beatles greatest hits album all by itself. Such was the musical download of this album on me when I was younger, when I finally bought a copy for myself years later, I was surprised at how many of the songs that weren’t radio standards that I still had memorised. Yes, I heard all four sides of that album growing up.

There are tons of Beatles Experts out there with far more knowledge about the history of this album than me. But this one just goes from track to tack and you get that “oh yeah, this one too” feeling.

I think I finally have to give an album a 10 out of 10 rating for the first time ever. The range of classic songs on this album is just too hard to believe. Glad I heard it coming from our basement.

Henry Martinez: My Beatles ranking of albums always has an undisputed top three: Abbey Road, Revolver and The White Album. After that, you can throw Sgt. Pepper and Rubber Soul in whichever order, followed by the rest.

This double album is at once too much and not enough. Too much because it does have throwaway tracks like Wild Honey Pie, Why Don't We Do It In The Road and yes, Revolution 9. And not enough because including Hey Jude and Revolution here instead of as standalone singles would have helped it leap past Revolver in my ranking. (Sorry, nothing tops Abbey Road, my greatest album of all time.)

Now, in terms of highlights, where to start? Harrison's While My Guitar Gently Weeps, with Eric Clapton in tow, announces to his bandmates that he's no longer messing around. This is the best song on the album, followed very closely by McCartney's ethereal Blackbird and Lennon's shimmering Dear Prudence. Then there's a special place for Helter Skelter which, before it was defaced by Charles Manson, served as proto-metal before Zeppelin and Sabbath even existed.

Yes, in my alternate universe, Disc 1 would have ended with Hey Jude and Disc 2 would have concluded with Revolution. Good Night isn't my cup of tea, but I get what they were trying to do. The White Album is glorious, messy and the sound of four solo albums jumbled into one. But as Paul once said, "It's the bloody White Album, so shut up!"

Jim Husk: There are very few albums in which every track is a hit or a winner. However, it is hard to be critical of a Beatles album. They always brought honesty and rawness to their music; they wrote what was on their hearts, and generations of listeners have admired and benefited from allowing us into their world.

Philip Qvist: OK, let's discuss the big elephant in the room first: Revolution 9 should not be on any album, far less a Beatles' album, and artistic experimentation be damned. And it isn't the only filler on the White Album (or to give its proper title, The Beatles) either; with Why Don't We Do It On The Road and Wild Honey Pie being perfect examples.

The White Album is a perfect example of a classic and great single album dying to get out of a very good double album, and it wouldn't be the last double album to suffer that fate. It is also a product of a band that is clearly falling apart at the seams, with a lot of solo-sounding tracks or numbers that only involved two, maybe three, band members.

And yet, despite the above negative comments, this is a fascinating album, because it has plenty of red-hot songs that are amongst the Beatles' best tracks. Songs such as Back In The USSR, Blackbird, Dear Prudence, Revolution 1, Helter Skelter, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Julia, Birthday and Long Long Long. The songwriting is dominated by the Lennon / McCartney partnership, but George Harrison's four tracks are some of the record's best numbers, while Ringo Starr's first solo effort Don't Pass Me By isn't bad either.

For sure, the White Album has its flaws, and it is no Rubber Soul, Revolver or Abbey Road, but it has more than its fair share of gems. This is an album where the Beatles made a statement and basically removed all the boundaries and broke all the rules when it came to recording an album. For that alone, The Beatles gets an 8.5 from me.

Steve Henshaw: When it hits (Back In The U.S.S.R., Revolution 1, Blackbird, Julia, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Yer Blues, Helter Skelter) it hits hard. When it misses (Wild Honey Pie, Revolution 9) it misses pretty hard, too.

But show me another album from that era with the same breadth and depth that proved that you didn't have to "stay in your lane" when creating art. I'll wait.