Today we have John Lennon's second solo studio album Imagine. Released in 1971, the album was a critical and commercial success, helped in part by its hit single "Imagine." It has since gone on to be considered one of the greatest albums of all time and is generally only ranked behind his debut Plastic Ono Band among his solo albums. The album was produced by Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Phil Spector.
It's funny that the man most famous for "Imagine" put on the same album the incredibly (and unnecessarily) scathing "How Do You Sleep?" about his old pal Paul--even more surprising is that George Harrison plays lead guitar. However, I suppose Lennon acknowledges and apologies for such contradictions on "Jealous Guy." I also suppose those contradictions bother no one, mostly because "How Do You Sleep?" is an exceptional piece of music. The rest of this album is equally exceptional and it's more diverse musically than his debut from the quiet title track, to the heavy "I Don't Wanna Be a Solider Mama," to the vulnerable "How?" and to the folk-rock classic "Oh Yoko!" I was a little worried Phil Spector's production would be over-powering like it was on parts of Let It Be--namely "The Long and Winding Road"--but his obvious contributions (the strings) are subtly done and restrained, which means they add a lot. Too bad George's guitar solo on "Gimme Some Truth" is also restrained because I wouldn't have minded if he played forever. A- [Later: A]
