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According to Richie Unterberger, "[The Beatles] and  were beginning to expand the conventional instrumental parameters of the rock group, using a sitar on 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)', French-like guitar lines on 'Michelle' and 'Girl', fuzz bass on 'Think for Yourself', and a piano made to sound like a harpsichord on the instrumental break of 'In My Life'."

Musically, The Beatles broadened their sound, most notably with influences drawn from the contemporary folk-rock of the  and . The album also saw The Beatles broadening rock 'n' roll's instrumental resources, most notably on "". Although both  and  had used Indian influences in their music, this track is generally credited as being the first pop recording to use an actual , an Indian stringed instrument, and "Norwegian Wood" sparked a musical craze for the sound of the novel instrument in the mid-1960s. The song is now acknowledged as one of the cornerstones of what is now usually called "" and it was a major landmark in the trend towards incorporating non-Western musical influences into Western popular music.  had been introduced to Indian classical music and the sitar earlier that year, that interest later being fuelled by fellow Indian music fan  of The Byrds, whom Harrison met and befriended in August 1965.Harrison soon became fanatically interested in the genre and began taking sitar lessons from renowned Indian sitar player . A broadening use of percussive arrangements, led by 's backbeats and frequently augmented by maracas and tambourine, can also be heard throughout the album, showcased in tracks such as "" and "". Perhaps Starr's most unusual percussion source on the album, which was revealed by him to Barry Tashian of The Remains in the book Ticket To Ride, is created by his tapping a pack of matches with his finger. This "tapping" sound can be heard in the background of "".

Recording innovations were also made during the recording of the album—for instance, the keyboard solo in "" sounds like a harpsichord, but was actually played on a piano. George Martin found he could not match the tempo of the song while playing in this  style, so he tried recording with the tape running at half-speed. When played back at normal speed during the mixdown, the sped-up sound gave the illusion of a harpsichord. Other production innovations included the use of electronic sound processing on many instruments, notably the heavily compressed and equalised piano sound on  ""; this distinctive effect soon became extremely popular in the genre of .

Also on Rubber Soul, the Beatles were seen heading into . As well as the sitar on "Norwegian Wood" and "The Word", they voiced the drug-influenced peace-and-love sentiments that would colour many psychedelic lyrics.

The song "" was initially recorded for, and then left off, the album . The reason the song was released on Rubber Soul was that the album was one song short, and with the Christmas deadline looming, The Beatles chose to release "Wait" instead of recording a new composition.

Lyrically, the album was a major progression. Though a smattering of earlier Beatles songs had expressed romantic doubt and negativity, the songs on Rubber Soul represented a pronounced development in sophistication, thoughtfulness, and ambiguity. In particular, the relationships between the sexes moved from simpler boy-girl love songs to more nuanced, even negative portrayals. "Norwegian Wood", one of the most famous examples and often cited as The Beatles' first conscious assimilation of the lyrical innovations of , sketches a poetically ambiguous extramarital affair between the singer and a mysterious girl. "" serves as a satirical piece of sexism. Songs like "", "", and "" express more emotionally complex, even bitter and downbeat portrayals of romance, and "" was arguably the first Beatles song to move beyond a romantic subject (arguable because the song "", released earlier in 1965, also appears not to be specifically about a boy-girl relationship—the song takes the form of a general cry for "help" from the singer to another person, whose relationship to the singer remains unspecified. Even the line "I know that I just need you like I've never done before", could be addressed to any close friend of the singer, not necessarily a romantic partner.)

Until very late in their career, the "primary" version of The Beatles' albums was always the  mix. According to Beatles historian , producer , and the Abbey Road engineers devoted most of their time and attention to the mono mixdowns, and the band were not usually present for these sessions, Even with their landmark  LP, the stereo mixdowns were considered less important than the mono version and were completed in far less time.

While the stereo version of the original release of Rubber Soul was similar to that of their earliest albums, featuring mainly vocals on the right channel and instruments on the left, it was not produced in the same manner. The early albums were recorded on twin-track tape, and they were intended only for production of monaural records, so they kept vocals and instruments separated allowing the two parts to later be mixed in proper proportion. By this time, however, the Beatles were recording on four-track tape, which allowed a stereo master to be produced with vocals in the centre and instruments on both sides, as evidenced in their prior albums  and . But Martin was looking for a way to easily produce a stereo album which sounded good on a monaural record player. In what he admits was some experimentation, he mixed down the four-track master tape to stereo with vocals on the right, instruments on the left, and nothing in the middle.

What Goes On? is the first song which has Ringo Starr (Richard Starkey) as co-composer beside Lennon-McCartney. The end of the song is different on the mono and stereo versions.

After completing the album and the accompanying single "" and "", the Beatles were exhausted from years of virtually non-stop recording, touring, and film work. They subsequently took a three-month break during the first part of 1966, and used this free time exploring new directions that would colour their subsequent musical work. These became immediately apparent in the next album,.

The photo of the Beatles on the Rubber Soul cover appears stretched. McCartney relates the story behind this in Volume 5 of the documentary film . Photographer  had taken some pictures of The Beatles at Lennon's house. Freeman showed the photos to the group by projecting them onto an album-sized piece of cardboard to simulate how they would appear on an album cover. The unusual Rubber Soulalbum cover came to be when the slide card fell slightly backwards, elongating the projected image of the photograph and stretching it. Excited by the effect, they shouted, "Ah! Can we have that? Can you do it like that?" Freeman said he could.

Capitol Records used a different colour saturation for the US version, causing the orange lettering used by Parlophone Records to show up as different colours. On some Capitol LPs, the title looks rich chocolate brown; others, more like gold. Yet on the official 1987 CD of the British version, the Capitol logo is visible, and the letters are not brown, nor the official orange, but a distinct green. The lettering was designed by Charles Front.

The Rubber Soul cover was the first by The Beatles to not have the group's name on it. Though this wasn't the first time in rock/pop history this had been done (Elvis Presley, Them, and The Rolling Stones had done it previously), releasing an album without the artist's name on the cover was uncommon in 1965. Future Beatles albums, including , ,  and the American compilation  also have covers without the words 'The Beatles' on them. Conversely , commonly called the White Album contained only the words 'The Beatles' on the cover.

All songs written and composed by  except where noted.