the UK and allowed them to focus on recording their next album, Rubber Soul. In her study of Beatlemania, sociologist Candy Leonard says that Rubber Soul challenged some young fans, due to its more sophisticated lyrical and musical content, but its release in December 1965 marked the moment when "the Beatles came to occupy a role in fans' lives and a place in their psyches that was different from any previous fan–performer relationship." The LP's cover contained a distorted, stretched image of the band's faces, which were nevertheless so instantly recognisable that no artist credit was necessary. Its surreal quality led some fans to write to the band's official fanzine, Beatles Monthly, alarmed that the group's appearance resembled that of corpses. Leonard writes that Rubber Soul initiated "close listening" among the Beatles' fanbase, particularly with regard to song lyrics, and studying the cover was part of the listening experience. Fans were fascinated by the photo and the change in the band's look. In Leonard's study, male fans recalled the significance of the band members' longer hair, individual clothes, and collective self-assuredness. The reaction from female fans varied; one found the cover "very sensual ... they looked grown up and sexy", while another described it as "scary, difficult, unpleasant", adding: "They looked menacing, like they were looking down on a victim. They looked like wooly mammoths, brown and leathery." In the UK, the release was accompanied by speculation that the group's success would soon end, given that most acts there faded after two or three years at the top. The Beatles had also defied convention and Epstein's wishes by drastically reducing their concert schedule in 1965, and they disappointed fans by refusing to reprise their annual Christmas Show season. During the band's UK tour that December, some newspapers reported that the intensity of the fans' passion appeared to have diminished. In his review of the opening show in Glasgow, Alan Smith of the NME wrote that "Crazy Beatlemania is over, certainly", despite the prevalence of "fainting fits, and thunderous waves of screams". By the end of the tour, however, following a series of concerts in London, Smith wrote: "without question, BEATLEMANIA IS BACK! ... I have not seen hysteria like this at a Beatles show since the word Beatlemania erupted into headlines!" 1966: Final tours and controversies Germany, Japan and the Philippines After spending three months away from the public eye