John Lennon / Plastic Ono Band (Remastered)

iTunes Review

Only an artist of John Lennon’s stature and caliber could pull off such an intensely personal and probing collection of songs and still manage to make its concerns collective and universal. On Lennon’s first proper solo album the arrangements are stripped to their essentials: band tracks center around either Lennon’s electric guitar or piano with only Klaus Voorman’s bass and Ringo Starr’s drums for backing. Lennon’s only concession to performance remains his insistence on double-tracking many of his vocals. All else is raw. From the funeral bell that opens “Mother” (which climaxes with Lennon’s primal scream), the scathing acoustic ballad “Working Class Hero,” the womb-like romantic paean of “Love,” the bitter indictments of “I Found Out” and “Well Well Well,” to the finality of Lennon’s purpose statement “God,” where he puts the final nail in the Beatles’ coffin, Plastic Ono Band is one of the most chilling, riveting and personal albums ever made.