Hi. It’s been a minute.

I’ve never been the biggest fan of the U.S. Beatles albums. Some of the track lists are kind of baffling. “Let’s squeeze every last LP out of Beatlemania before it burns out.” But this week, listening to Yesterday and Today, something clicked.

It’s kind of a perfect sampler of their transitional era: that golden 1965–66 stretch where they’re still cranking out pop songs but starting to get curious, restless, and just weird enough. It’s been my favorite Beatles period for a long time.

You get these killer tracks that didn’t make the 1 compilation because they weren’t #1s: “Drive My Car,” “Nowhere Man,” “If I Needed Someone.” (I still say 1 is the best place for a Beatles beginner to start. Then the Red and Blue albums once they’re hooked.)

And Yesterday and Today pulls from Help!, Rubber Soul, and RevolverBeatles evolution. It lands right in that sweet spot: after the mop-top phase, right as they were getting into sitars and tape loops. Some of their best hooks and harmonies, and just enough oddness to foreshadow what lay ahead in 1967.

But there’s more to the album’s mystique. Yesterday and Today was a U.S.-only release, which already makes it an outsider in the Beatles canon. Then there’s the infamous “butcher cover”: the original LP art featured the band dressed in butcher smocks, surrounded by raw meat and decapitated baby dolls. It was meant as dark satire but when it didn’t go over great, Capitol pulled it almost immediately and replaced it with the far tamer “trunk” cover, making original copies of the butcher sleeve one of the most coveted (and cursed) collectibles in pop history.

In retrospect, it’s kind of a lost artifact. A weird little bridge between Beatlemania and their psychedelic peak. A glimpse at a band in flux: still charming, but clearly getting restless.

Was it assembled for artistic reasons? Absolutely not. It’s a corporate cash grab at best. But I have to admit it’s kind of a vibe.