John Lennon Imagine SHM-CD

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John Lennon's first post-Beatles album, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, had emerged in late 1970 to critical praise but only muted approval in the marketplace. The conclusions were, to him, pretty obvious. He might be a trail-blazer in all kinds of ways, but he was at heart a populist — an artist but also an entertainer. The task was to frame his ideas in music that listeners loved and took inside their hearts. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band had been admired, but often from a distance.

The role of the next album — the record that became Imagine — was an attempt for maximum communication, offering hopes to the bleeding, battered world. On the musical level he certainly succeeded. Imagine is the best-loved album of his solo career, while its title track is perhaps his most revered. By contrast to its austere predecessor the new music had melodies in abundance, and color and variety. It had flashes of broad humor and moments of absolute joy.

On its release in September 1971, the Imagine album was recognized as a rounded self-portrait of this complex, candid, passionate man. It re-established his eminence in the commercial firmament, among a rising generation of rock 'n' roll stars such as Led Zeppelin and David Bowie. It was clear the 1970s John Lennon would not sit in the shadow of his 1960s self.

Featuring the 2018 Ultimate Mixes that have been faithfully remixed from the ground up by triple Grammy® Award winning engineer Paul Hicks at Abbey Road Studios under the supervision of Yoko Ono Lennon, using high-definition 24-96 audio transfers of the original first-generation multi-track recordings, these Ultimate Mixes reveal whole new levels of sonic depth, definition and clarity.

This SHM-CD includes bonus tracks, 2018-edition booklet, poster, 2 x postcards, inner bag and the white booklet featuring the Japanese translations of the lyrics.