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