Ruminations on the Beatles: Beatles For Sale

Everything I've said about the previous three Beatles albums goes for this one as well.  It's got some of my favorite deep cuts ("I'll Follow The Sun", "I'm a Loser") and some of the classics ("Every Little Thing", "Eight Days a Week"), and again, the band shows growth, moving towards less obvious love song territory, even tackling some subjects that would normally find themselves in a blues tune.  But the music isn't what I want to talk about with this album.
I've had a digital copy of Beatles For Sale as long as I can remember, and I've listened to it dozens of times.  But this past Christmas, my wife bought me the complete Beatles Discography on LP in a re-issue box set that comes with a huge coffee table book about the albums.  It's a gorgeous package, and one of my prized possessions.  I spent about 3 solid days flipping through the book and the LPs, just enjoying the artwork and the feel of the albums.
I used to collect LPs, but circumstances caused me to part with my collection long ago.  The feel of having  them in hand after so long brought me right back to my early college days, when I had nothing better to spend money on than a stack of used records.  Anyone who has ever owned one should understand.  The gigantic, art-covered sleeves were half the experience of owning an LP, and it brings something unique and special to an album, especially when its one of your favorite bands.
Beatles For Sale, specifically, was the first album in the boxed set that I really marveled at.  I'd seen the cover before, I knew it was a jump towards an artsier presentation for the band, and daring in that it was the first not to feature the band's name prominently on the front.  But until I owned the physical LP, I had no idea that it was a gate-fold cover.  To those not in-the-know, a gate-fold is often used for double LPs, with two sleeves connected by a hinge, effectively doubling the space for album art.  Beatles For Sale isn't a double LP, there's just and extra flap on the front, allowing for twice the art, just for fun.

The art itself is understated, nothing like the schizophrenic Klaus Voorman piece that makes up the cover of Revolver (my vote for best album cover of all time).  The Cover is just pictures of the band standing in a leaf-strewn park in autumn, looking too %&*#ing cool to be real.  The inside is just a live shot on the left and the band posing in front of a mural at Twickenham Film Studios during the filming of A Hard Day's Night on the right.  It's simple, and with a cursory glance you can see everything there is to see in the pictures.  But for a fan of the Beatles, and a fan of album art in general, its entrancing.  Something about holding that massive cardboard sleeve in hand makes it magical, even if the art itself contains no secrets.
And there's no doubt that after you've dropped the needle for the first time, pouring over the gigantic sleeve will enhance your experience.  The Beatles did it better on future albums, sure, but they did it first on Beatles For Sale.