John Lennon: Imagine [APPLE]

Why you'll love it

This Apple reissue is remastered on 180g vinyl. Imagine went to No. 1 in the UK and on the Billboard 200, and Rolling Stone placed it at No. 80 on its 2012 list of the 500 greatest albums.

This edition

• 180g vinyl
• Remastered

About the album

The title song is so familiar now that it's easy to forget it was brand new when Lennon played it for the musicians gathered at Ascot Sound Studios, his home studio at Tittenhurst Park, in May 1971. After the raw, small-group sound of John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, he and co-producers Yoko Ono and Phil Spector went for something far more elaborate, finishing the album at the Record Plant in New York.

George Harrison plays on half the tracks, with Nicky Hopkins on keys, Klaus Voormann on bass and Alan White and Jim Keltner on drums; members of Badfinger chip in, King Curtis adds saxophone, and Torrie Zito wrote the strings. "Jealous Guy" and "Oh My Love" are among his tenderest songs, "Give Me Some Truth" bristles, "Crippled Inside" has a jaunty old-time bounce, and "Oh Yoko!" ends things on a sunny note.

Imagine is widely counted, alongside John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, among his finest solo albums, and footage from the sessions has fed two documentaries since. Rob Sheffield summed the album up as a state-of-the-art rock record that's also weird and raw, which is a fair description of most of us before coffee.

Also at Kops: more John Lennon on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Apple (cat# 5357095), a reissue of the 1971 album.