John Lennon - Imagine: The Ultimate Edition (4CD) (2018) CD-Rip

After the harrowing Plastic Ono Band, John Lennon returned to calmer, more conventional territory with Imagine. While the album had a softer surface, it was only marginally less confessional than its predecessor. Underneath the sweet strings of "Jealous Guy" lies a broken and scared man, the jaunty "Crippled Inside" is a mocking assault of an acquaintance, and "Imagine" is a paean for peace in a world with no gods, possessions, or classes, where everyone is equal. And Lennon doesn't shy away from the hard rockers -- "How Do You Sleep" is a scathing attack on Paul McCartney, "I Don't Want to Be a Soldier" is a hypnotic anti-war song, and "Give Me Some Truth" is bitter hard rock. If Imagine doesn't have the thematic sweep of Plastic Ono Band, it is nevertheless a remarkable collection of songs that Lennon would never be able to best.
Imagine is the closest thing Lennon has to an acknowledged popular masterpiece. Plastic Ono Band is surely its equal artistically, but it generated nary a hit single, while the sentimental favorite Double Fantasy sold in numbers that eclipsed its consistency. Imagine, on the other hand, had both the sales and the acclaim, along with a title track that became an anthem that transcended its era. In other words, Imagine is ripe for the kind of super deluxe edition that it received in 2018 under the guise of Imagine: The Ultimate Collection. "Ultimate" is not an understatement. This handsome six-disc box -- four CDs, accompanied by two Blu-Rays, with the latter containing some exclusive material that aren't on the CDs -- offers a new remix of the album proper, along with all of its stray singles and non-LP songs (including versions of the Elastic Oz Band's "God Save Oz" with both Oz's Bill Elliot and Lennon on lead), a host of outtakes, extensions, and elements, all capturing the recording development of the album. If the new remix is generally extraneous -- it's wide and cinematic, sometimes seeming like a stereo fold-down of the surround mix -- the outtakes are compelling, showcasing how deeply Lennon settled into the groove of creating music in a high-end studio. To that end, the most interesting moments on the Ultimate Collection are often the alternate takes and extended versions. Where the elements often seem ephemeral, these live-in-the-studio recordings are vivid and soulful, just a tad bit looser than the finished takes, which makes them seem imperfect and human. Perhaps there are no great revelations within these alternates -- the arrangements are nearly identical to the finished versions, right down to Lennon repeating "thing" after "something" in "How Do You Sleep" -- but by not being so tidy, these familiar songs seem fresh again and for any serious fan, that's worth the experience.