Ultimate i Ching

Mind Games was meant to be a return to form for John Lennon, after an instantly dated protest album that felt didactic and cold. He seemed to be back on track with its opening Top 20 hit title song. But the rest of Mind Games could be a strangely ruminative and often mid-tempo, with a shaggy studio approach. Mind Games: The Ultimate Collection makes it clear who fans should blame: The producer. After three straight projects with co-producers Phil Spector and Yoko Ono, Lennon took over those duties. He clearly couldn't place enough distance between himself and the material to make the best choices for these songs. An outside voice might have encouraged him to continue work on some tracks, or to toss one or two aside.

"I produced the first Ultimate Demonstration Disc in 1995, and it went on to be a huge success. It caught on with audiophiles, especially those who read audiophile magazines like "Stereophile" and "The Absolute Sound," but didn't fully understand the lexicon of sound. Audiophile reviewers use words like "transparent" and "soundstage depth" all the time, but rarely describe exactly what the words mean. With the original and now this new UDD I spell out what to listen for on each tune. And since Chesky recordings are made by and for audiophiles the entire recording chain – the microphones, mic preamps, mixer, and analog-to-digital converter – is custom built to high-end standards.