If you were allowed only one: Plastic Ono Band v Imagine

materamagic

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Clearly John's two best albums in his solo career, his first two. Which one do you rate more or just think is a better album and why?

I think that Imagine is a more consistant album and it would win my vote by only the slightest of moments.

POB was a very personal album exorcising his demons, he made peace with himself where as on Imagine he makes peace with the world, thats the difference. POB is full of raw emotion to the likes that had rarely been vented before on record. He makes it clear that he is over the Beatles and the album visits his past and declares his visions and hope for the future, JohnandYoko. There are several brilliant songs here such as the immortal "Working Class Hero" one of his most emotional ballads "mother" severely overlooked when discussing his career, "God" is also in this catagory. "Love" is the most tender moment here and "Isolation" is very underrated. The rest of the songs are personal laments on society, etc.... There are a few lesser tracks here but the best is among his best.

Imagine is the album most associate him with. The title song everyone knows, sure its overplayed but it has a nice vision for us all. "Crippled Inside" is Lennon fooling around in a rollicking upbeat country setting some say this song was about homosexuals, Epstein possibly. "Jealous Guy" is a classic and alot of people dont realise Lennon wrote this. "Gimme Some Truth" is a brutally honest assessment of politicians and pleads for the truth, it features some stinging hot guitar from Mr Harrison. "Oh My Love" deserves to be in his top 10 solo songs of all time, not everyone knows this sad, melodic and tender entry in his catalogue, its good. "How Do You Sleep?" directed at Paul is an upbeat song with killer music thanks to George again who plays some mean guitar, giving the song some venom. "How?" simply must be one of the best songs he has written, it may be simple but the weight of the words, the arrangement all point to classic Lennon, not many know this one, but its brilliant. Off course he must dedicate a song to Mommy Dearest, Oh Yoko! is very catchy and great harmonising with Phil Spector the harmonica towards the end is a nice touch.

So Imagine wins by a sugar plum fairy, although there are not many albums as open, honest, blunt and brilliant as POB
 

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Toasta

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#3
Boy am i getting sick of this 'If you were allowed only one" hypothetical.

But for the record ill swing in the direction of the plastic ono band.
 

materamagic

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Thread starter #4
Toasta said:
Boy am i getting sick of this 'If you were allowed only one" hypothetical.

But for the record ill swing in the direction of the plastic ono band.
OK I will stop these "only one threads"

In future I will post a thread about one album for discussion saving for the comparisons and hypotheticals
 
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#5
materamagic said:
OK I will stop these "only one threads"

In future I will post a thread about one album for discussion saving for the comparisons and hypotheticals
Fwiw, I think you've thrown up some pretty good comparison threads so far. A few interesting discussions can arise from a few of these.
 

materamagic

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harry_hawka said:
Fwiw, I think you've thrown up some pretty good comparison threads so far. A few interesting discussions can arise from a few of these.
thanks, i know people have some of these albums but can tend to collect dust so its good when an album is talked about, to go back and revisit it much like an old friend
 

KMac4FF

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#8
POB way ahead, I love it for the raw sound and the way JL shares his emotions with us.

I-i-i-isola-a-ation
 

HorseHead

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#10
POB for me by a comfortable margin. Both good albums, but POB doesn't have a single weak song on it (whereas, Imagine has a couple that I have never particularly liked). I really like the rawness of POB.
 
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