John Lennon’s Gimme Some Truth, an extensive 4-disc compilation album, was released in 2010. Is the Autumn 2020 version an anniversary re-release? Has the music industry got to the stage where it just reissues compilations every ten years? No, not quite. This version actually celebrates Lennon’s 80th birthday (he was born on the 9th October 1940) and it’s more sober than the one from ten years ago. We find 36 songs that embody Lennon’s work - 36 candles that have lit up the lives of several generations. From Instant Karma and Angela to Power To The People, God and (of course) Imagine, all the classics are there. There are no unreleased tracks, the real novelty comes from the sound. Taken from The Beatles’ catalogue, these songs have been heavily reworked, remixed, rearranged and remastered. The sound is undoubtedly fuller, brighter and more precise. Die-hard fans might be annoyed (and perhaps rightly so) by this post-mortem facelift. Why change a sound to which we have always been accustomed, and which bears witness to such an era? But look past this and you’ll see a whole new world – one with more colours and expression. Everyone will at least agree on one thing: Lennon’s sentimental, troubled and political songs are still as relevant today as they were forty-five years ago. © Stéphane Deschamps/Qobuz

The cliché about singer/songwriters is that they sing confessionals direct from their heart, but John Lennon exploded the myth behind that cliché, as well as many others, on his first official solo record, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Inspired by his primal scream therapy with Dr. Arthur Janov, Lennon created a harrowing set of unflinchingly personal songs, laying out all of his fears and angers for everyone to hear. It was a revolutionary record -- never before had a record been so explicitly introspective, and very few records made absolutely no concession to the audience's expectations, daring the listeners to meet all the artist's demands. Which isn't to say that the record is unlistenable. Lennon's songs range from tough rock & rollers to piano-based ballads and spare folk songs, and his melodies remain strong and memorable, which actually intensifies the pain and rage of the songs. Not much about Plastic Ono Band is hidden. Lennon presents everything on the surface, and the song titles -- "Mother," "I Found Out," "Working Class Hero," "Isolation," "God," "My Mummy's Dead" -- illustrate what each song is about, and chart his loss of faith in his parents, country, friends, fans, and idols. It's an unflinching document of bare-bones despair and pain, but for all its nihilism, it is ultimately life-affirming; it is unique not only in Lennon's catalog, but in all of popular music. Few albums are ever as harrowing, difficult, and rewarding as John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

In late 1970, when Plastic Ono Band released its first album, The Beatles were still not officially finished. And yet, here is an impressive debut solo album, with John Lennon opening his heart, his soul and his mind – in short, this was Lennon laid bare; the complete Lennon, dreamy and lucid, calm and edgy. Urged by Yoko Ono to undergo therapy, he turns this extremely raw record into the perfect outlet. The masterpieces follow one after another (Working Class Hero, Mother, God, Power To The People) while, behind the glass at Abbey Road studios, playing utterly against type, genius American producer Phil Spector, inventor of the famous Wall of Sound, soberly shapes this fascinating inner journey which never goes down the path of the easy blockbuster hit. Accompanying John on this journey are Ringo Starr, Klaus Voormann on bass, Yoko, Billy Preston and Spector on piano for one track. There’s no fancy dressing on his limpid ballads, which are sometimes extremely oneiric (the incredible Love), heartbreaking (the opener Mother, as its name suggests about his mother, killed by a car in 1958), or even verging on angry on the simple (not simplistic) rock numbers (I Found Out)… Fifty years after its release, this elemental record benefits from the luxurious reissue treatment with almost 7 and a half hours of music! These kinds of 5-star editions always pose the question: who is it for? Obviously, you have to be a hardcore fan of the Fab Four and / or Lennon to immerse yourself in such a musical (and financial) commitment. For those among us who are simply musical tourists, it's arguably more advisable to stick to the eleven tracks of the original Plastic Ono Band …As with the 2018 reissue of Imagine and the subsequent best-of Gimme Some Truth, this Plastic Ono Band Ultimate Collection has been completely remixed from the original tapes by sound engineer Paul Hicks. The 'Ultimate Mixes' are the closest to the originals but have been cleaned up a bit, making Lennon's vocals clearer. The 'Out-takes' are rawer mixes. whilst the 'Elements Mixes' bring parts that were eradicated from the original final mixes back to life. Finally, there are also some other demos, jams on which we come across songs formerly covered by The Beatles (Matchbox, Honey Don’t), and even covers of the Fab Four (Get Back, I’ve Got A Feeling). This treasure chest also includes songs that weren't on the original album, including Give Peace A Chance, Instant Karma and Cold Turkey. Here's an Ultimate Collection that lives up to the name. © Marc Zisman/Qobuz

After a lengthy absence, Faithfull resurfaced on this 1979 album, which took the edgy and brittle sound of punk rock and gave it a shot of studio-smooth dance rock. Faithfull's whiskey-worn vocals perfectly match the bitter and biting "Why'd Ya Do It" and revitalize John Lennon's "Working Class Hero."© John Floyd /TiVo

Like many long-term relationships, Manic Street Preachers benefited from some time apart, as their seventh album, Send Away the Tigers, makes plain. Arriving on the heels of 2006 solo albums from both singer/guitarist James Dean Bradfield and lyricist/bassist Nicky Wire, Send Away the Tigers finds the group recharged and revitalized, achieving the widescreen grandeur of Everything Must Go but infusing it with a harder rock edge that may not be as furious as their earliest work, but is no less committed. This surging sense of purpose was conspicuously absent on the Manics' previous albums, which grew increasingly mannered in their attempts at majestic pop, culminating in the pleasant but too soft Lifeblood. It's hard to call Tigers soft -- it thunders even in its quietest moments, and when strings or keyboards are brought in, they're drowned out by guitars. This doesn't sound like a desperate measure; it sounds like recommitment on the part of the Manics, especially since they haven't abandoned the melodic skills they've honed over the past decade. They've merely melded them to muscular yet mature rock & roll. It's that commitment to hard rock that makes Send Away the Tigers bracing upon its initial listen, but what makes it lasting is the songs, which may lack anthems on the level of "A Design for Life," but they're something better: they're small-scale epics, roiling with drama and coiled with tension, flirting with being overblown but kept grounded by the group's reclaimed righteousness and newfound sense of control. That leanness applies to the album overall as well -- where every Manics record since Everything Must Go grew increasingly over-stuffed, this has no flab, and its ten songs have a relentless momentum. It's still pretty bombastic -- the Manics were never about subtlety -- but the sweeping gestures are delivered with a sense of efficiency that makes Send Away the Tigers never seem heavy-handed, which is something that even their best albums often are. So, this isn't merely a return to form, then -- it's also a welcome progression from a band that only a couple of albums back seemed stuck in a rut with no way out.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

The crown jewel in Apple/EMI’s extensive 2010 John Lennon remasters series, Signature Box contains all of the solo studio albums Lennon released during his lifetime (minus the trio of experimental duet LPs with Yoko Ono released on Apple and Zapple), his first posthumous album Milk and Honey, a disc of non-LP singles, a disc of home demos, but not the 2010 showcase item Double Fantasy Stripped Down, which is available only as a bonus on the indvidual reissue of Double Fantasy. It is, in other words, close enough to complete to perhaps invite a little bit of quibbling about what is absent -- Live Peace in Toronto could fit in nicely with this batch and there are outtakes from Menlove Ave missing but the real niggling comes with the home demo disc, which emphasizes demos and alternate takes of songs from Plastic Ono Band and Imagine, leaving behind demos of songs Lennon gave away, including “I’m the Greatest” and “Goodnight Vienna,” which he handed over to Ringo, and songs that never made it to one of his records. Ultimately, this is nitpicking because Signature Box is handsomely produced and contains the best-sounding Lennon remasters -- remastered by the team that did the acclaimed 2009 Beatles remasters, using the original mixes, not the recent remixes -- which is enough to make this more than worthwhile for the serious Lennon fan.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

A remarkable recording for many reasons, the debut of Tin Machine predates by nearly half a decade much of the guitar-oriented alternative pop that followed the grunge explosion of 1991-1992. This does not sound like Bowie in a band; missing are the quirkiness and theatrics that characterize much of Bowie's solo work. This is a band with a band attitude, not exactly what the fans were wanting at the time. Stunt guitarist Reeves Gabrels provides much in the way of ambient guitar solos, not unlike Adrian Belew's work. Drummer Hunt Sales provides a sticky tenor vocal similar to Bowie's own voice in a higher register; they blend very well together. The music is hard-edged guitar rock with an intelligence missing from much of the work of that genre at the time. Highlights include the emotional "Prisoner of Love" and the driving "Under the God." The band does a rocking rework of John Lennon's "Working Class Hero," with a killer machine-gun fire-sounding riff that permeated the track. The strongest analog to Bowie's earlier work is a five-minute number toward the beginning of the record called "I Can't Read"; with its deliberately out-of-tune guitars and half-hearted vocals, it's a nice piece of artistry. This record would have been more popular had it been released five or six years later.© Mark W. B. Allender /TiVo

Fully established as a dramatic, innovative singer with astonishing appeal and energy thanks to her string of excellent '80s releases, Faithfull concluded her renaissance decade with Blazing Away, an excellent live album recorded in New York's St. Anne's Cathedral. The crackerjack backing band deserves note in and of itself, including members ranging from the Band's Garth Hudson to Dr. John, plus regular collaborators Marc Ribot, Fernando Saunders, and her key partner Barry Reynolds. Faithfull and the players fit hand in glove track for track, with the emphasis on subtler arrangements and performances suiting the hushed, striking atmosphere of the performance. When the band shows its muscle, as with the snarling strut of "Guilt," there's no question of this being anything like easy listening. In general, though, the sense of cabaret meets modern nightclub dominates, with Faithfull's singing capturing the cracking tug of her vocals just so. The selection of songs ranges from the intriguingly obscure to the familiar enough -- "As Tears Go By" and "Broken English" take unsurprising bows, as does a lengthy brood on "Sister Morphine," "She Moved Through the Fair," and a commanding rip through the harrowing "Why'd Ya Do It?" There are two new numbers as well. The title track is the one song recorded in studio, with Reynolds and Saunders, plus a number of other musicians; it's got a nice steel guitar twang to it, and Faithfull tries for the high lonesome sound in her own wonderful way. Other flat-out highlights include a grand take on "Times Square" and a slow crawl through "Working Class Hero" that seethes with fire, both from the musicians and Faithfull.© Ned Raggett /TiVo

Because more than half of the 35 songs on this two-disc retrospective of Marianne Faithfull's 1979-95 output come from her three great albums -- Broken English, Dangerous Acquaintances, and Strange Weather -- or are previously unreleased outtakes or B-sides from them, A Perfect Stranger: The Island Anthology makes a fine primer to Faithfull's often challenging, always mesmerizing (or would that be always challenging, often mesmerizing?) music. "Ballad of the Soldier's Wife," her solid contribution to 1985's Lost in the Stars: The Music of Kurt Weill, is also included, giving Faithfull's hauntingly tragic voice the resonance and attention it demands. Weill and Faithfull seem made for each other, as the bulk of the second disc (comprised of songs from her 1990 live album and the underachieving A Secret Life, as well as the career-capping Strange Weather) makes clear. But there's also a strain to some of these tracks, as if Faithfull's aesthetic wandering eventually will bring her to that elusive cabaret of her dreams. On her best recordings, it indeed sounds like she's home.© Michael Gallucci /TiVo

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Essentially an amped-up karaoke night in the Osbournes' basement lair, Under Cover is impeccably engineered and effortlessly played -- ex-Alice in Chains axe slinger Jerry Cantrell provides impressive guitar work throughout, making a strong case as to whether this is his baby or Ozzy's. All of the tracks here, with the exception of "Rocky Mountain Way," "Sunshine of Your Love," "Woman," and "Go Now," appeared on 2005's Prince of Darkness box set. Guest appearances abound, with Mott the Hoople's Ian Hunter choking out his original refrain on "All the Young Dudes" in a style that can only be described as "endearingly awkward homeless man," Mountain's Leslie West turning the amps up to 11 on "Mississippi Queen," and blues-rock wunderkind Robert Randolph laying down some serious pedal steel on "Sympathy for the Devil." The Ozz himself is in good form, but as is the case with much of his later work, he sounds more like the tool than the fist. It's good to give a nod to your inspirations, but when it's a performer like Osbourne, who has made the uncomfortable shift from artist to product, the sentiment -- however genuine -- gets lost in the marketing.© James Christopher Monger /TiVo

The cliché about singer/songwriters is that they sing confessionals direct from their heart, but John Lennon exploded the myth behind that cliché, as well as many others, on his first official solo record, John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band. Inspired by his primal scream therapy with Dr. Arthur Janov, Lennon created a harrowing set of unflinchingly personal songs, laying out all of his fears and angers for everyone to hear. It was a revolutionary record -- never before had a record been so explicitly introspective, and very few records made absolutely no concession to the audience's expectations, daring the listeners to meet all the artist's demands. Which isn't to say that the record is unlistenable. Lennon's songs range from tough rock & rollers to piano-based ballads and spare folk songs, and his melodies remain strong and memorable, which actually intensifies the pain and rage of the songs. Not much about Plastic Ono Band is hidden. Lennon presents everything on the surface, and the song titles -- "Mother," "I Found Out," "Working Class Hero," "Isolation," "God," "My Mummy's Dead" -- illustrate what each song is about, and chart his loss of faith in his parents, country, friends, fans, and idols. It's an unflinching document of bare-bones despair and pain, but for all its nihilism, it is ultimately life-affirming; it is unique not only in Lennon's catalog, but in all of popular music. Few albums are ever as harrowing, difficult, and rewarding as John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.© Stephen Thomas Erlewine /TiVo

This best-of basically covers the years 1979 to 1994, though it reaches back to 1964 for Marianne Faithfull's first recording and first hit, "As Tears Go By," and includes "She," slated for the upcoming 1995 album A Secret Life. Five of the 11 songs are drawn from Faithfull's strongest album, 1979's Broken English, including the bitter title track and "Why'd Ya Do It." Otherwise, compiler Chris Blackwell makes little attempt to present a balance among Faithfull's recordings -- there is nothing at all from Dangerous Acquaintances or A Child's Adventure, and only one track each from Strange Weather and Blazing Away. But there is a good newly recorded cover of Patti Smith's "Ghost Dance" co-produced by Keith Richards and featuring other members of the Rolling Stones, and Blackwell rescues Faithfull's rendition of the title theme for the movie Trouble in Mind from the soundtrack album. It adds up to an excellent compilation that highlights Faithfull's strengths as a singer.© William Ruhlmann /TiVo

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