Amazon.co.uk Review
The song "Imagine" is so much a part of our culture, it is impossible not to feel something for the album that shares its title. It's also difficult to remember that there are other great tracks here: "How Do You Sleep" is fascinating in its pure, unadulterated bitchiness towards Lennon's former bandmate
Paul McCartney, while "Jealous Guy" is undeniably sweet. It is at times brilliant, but
Imagine is hardly the greatest and most important album ever. So why bother re-releasing it? Well, it's been "remastered and remixed", but don't expect reworkings by
Orbital or
Mint Royale (not a bad idea come to think of it), because this
Imagine sounds pretty much the same as it ever has. The thing is, it's now so steeped in history, will anyone really judge the songs on their own merit, or just decide to like them because they've been told they should?
--Emma Johnston
CD Description
Considered together, IMAGINE and its startling predecessor,PLASTIC ONO BAND, paint a vivid picture of the state of John Lennon immediately post-Beatles. If PLASTIC ONO BAND foundJohn working out his hitherto repressed feelings about childhood and stardom, then the abiding impression of IMAGINE isJohn's one certainty in this storm of doubts and recrimination: his love for Yoko. "Jealous Guy", with its peerless vocal and a spot-on arrangement for strings, is sublime. "Oh MyLove" is all delicacy and melodiousness. "Oh Yoko!" is a celebratory finale with none of the cloying self-obsession of John and Yoko's home movies.
On two other songs where Yoko is not the dominant theme, she is nevertheless invoked through the "oh no, oh no" refrain. That's not to say that lovesongs predominate. Half of the material covers similar terrain to PLASTIC ONO BAND, but the themes are balanced by hopeand even light-heartedness. "Crippled Inside" is leavened by its country stylings including Dobro, courtesy of George Harrison, who also spices up two of the album's pivotal tracks, "Gimme Some Truth" and "How Do You Sleep?" (the latter isa vitriolic attack on Paul McCartney). Outside of PLASTIC ONO BAND, this may be Lennon's finest solo album.