Imagine (Remastered)

iTunes Review

John Lennon’s first solo album, Plastic Ono Band, stripped the music to its core and unleashed his confessions upon the world. His follow-up, 1971’s Imagine, continued the self-analysis and the singer’s constant struggle with his anger and insecurities, set this time to music much more lush and easily accessible than the primal minimalism of the solo debut. The piano-based title track has become a utopian anthem the world over, but Imagine offers many interesting points of entry, from Lennon’s gnashing tirade “Gimme Some Truth,” his anti-war polemic “I Don’t Want to be a Soldier” and his attack on old bandmate Paul McCartney “How Do You Sleep?,” to his love songs, “Oh Yoko!” “Oh My Love,” and the gorgeously orchestrated “Jealous Guy” (which had circulated around the time of the Beatles’ White Album as “Child of Nature”). The album lacks the shock factor of Plastic Ono Band but its overall sound, produced by Phil Spector, who used a lighter touch, is soothing without losing its edge. Lennon would spend the rest of his solo career seeking and sometimes deliberately avoiding that balance.