John Lennon

Two years after the first great Lennon revival -- arriving in 1988, as an attempt to deflate Albert Goldman's trash-talking biography -- Capitol released Lennon, a four-disc box set summary of his solo career. It does a remarkably good job, providing a thorough overview containing all the hits plus expertly chosen album tracks from his decidedly uneven records. The question is, is Lennon the one collection everybody needs? Not really. This may contain almost every great song Lennon recorded as a solo artist, yet the packaging is a little shoddy, and it could have been sequenced a little bit better. Still, as a summary, it's first-rate, rounding up the non-LP singles and condensing the records to their essence and thereby conveying the scope of Lennon's solo career very well. If you have the albums, plus a good singles collection, this isn't really necessary since it doesn't have anything too rare, but if you want one simple, albeit exhaustive, collection with everything you need, this fits the bill. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide