Imagine is an interesting record. It, of course, contains the title track, which many feel is John Lennon's best post-Beatles work, if not his greatest song. But listening to the music and the lyrics, you find that this record is quite schizophrenic, with one song containing a universal message of peace and understanding followed by a more upbeat song followed by a song about insecurity followed by a love song for Yoko Ono (the best being "Oh Yoko").
But knowing something about Lennon himself and his multiple faces and personalities, it's not surprising at all that a Lennon album would be like this. Just look at the album cover with the faded picture of Lennon's face in the middle of some translucent clouds and fog. It makes sense that this album is like this. It's an album of everything he was feeling and thinking at the time.
Imagine also was written during the thick of the feud between Lennon and ex-bandmate Paul McCartney. Lennon's biting sarcasm and wit are at their best when he rips into McCartney on the song "How Do You Sleep?" in which he tells Paul, "The only thing you done was yesterday / and since you've gone you've just another day" and "A pretty face may last a year or two / but pretty soon they'll see what you can do," among other stabs.
Overall, the songs on Imagineare as good as Lennon's work with the Beatles. Let me clarify that. The songs have/had the potential to be as good. However, much of the album is bogged down by Phil Spector's overly lush production where there is a little too much emphasis on the strings, which are played by what Lennon called "the Flux Fiddlers." Spector did the same to the best songs on the Beatles' Let it Be, and those songs don't live up to their potentials, either. No matter how great songs such as "Imagine" and "Jealous Guy" are, they would be that much better if the string section was toned down a little.
Besides that little bit of over-production, this album gives you another reason why Lennon's solo work continues to flourish more than that of his ex-Beatle-mates. On a side note, George Harrison plays on half of this album, including "How Do You Sleep?"
- John Lee
