After the success of the Beatles' remaster boxes, there would be no surprise on why EMI start remaster the whole catalogue for each of the Fab Four's member.

Along with the celebration for the 70th birthday of John Lennon, EMI released the remaster of all the studio solo albums Lennon ever released in his lifetime, plus one posthumous - from 1970 'John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band' to 1980 'Double Fantasy', and also 1984 'Milk and Honey'. The cover of 1974 'Walls and Bridges' also revert back to its original artwork. Being remastered by the same team that did the Beatles boxes last year, the quality of the sound is great as expected. Although someone who already bought the previous 2000-2005 releases may find this new remaster a bit strange. The reason is that the producer team decided to remaster every tracks from Lennon's original mix, not from the latest remixes - another reason to make this release a necessary purchase for Lennon's fans.

This release also intruduce the new format for 'Double Fantasy' album. Titled as 'Double Fantasy Stripped Down', aside from the remastered original tracks, it also has an additional CD contains an alternative remixed of each song - and give out different feeling to the songs. "(Just Like) Starting Over" and "Watching the Wheel" may sound a bit less elegant but have more warmth to them, while "Woman" has more acoustic sound to it. The box also includes two bonus material CDs; one contains the non-album singles, and another contains never-released outtakes and home recordings.

However, the absense of John & Yoko's early LPs and two Live albums make this box fall a bit short of becoming the definitive Lennon collection. And since the 1998 'Anthology' already contains the majority of his un-release works, there are few left to be placed into this new box. If you are a casual fans who already own the whole sets of previous remasters, you probably have no need for this new box. But for any serious Lennon's fans or new listerners, this is a must-have set to own.