Is This What You Want? superstar backing musicians, saying, "they're always talkin' about who's on the album and not the album itself." Writing in "ZigZag" in July 1974, Andy Childs advised the magazine's readers: "it's worth its weight in gold, so if it's absent from your collection, add it to your shopping list of second-hand records." Greenfield and Childs both recognised Harrison's "Sour Milk Sea" as a highlight of the album. Richie Unterberger of AllMusic offers a less favourable opinion of "Is This What You Want?", describing Lomax as "a passable but unarresting singer and songwriter". Unterberger identifies the best moments as the "Beatlesque" songs
Is This What You Want? the Walrus",<ref name="Staunton/RM 04">Terry Staunton, "Jackie Lomax: "Is This What You Want?"", "Record Collector", July 2004; available at Rock's Backpages (subscription required; retrieved 31 October 2012).</ref> and, conversely, pre-empting the similar-sounding "Come Together" by a full year.<ref name="Unterberger/AM">Richie Unterberger, "Jackie Lomax "Is This What You Want?"", AllMusic (retrieved 31 October 2012).</ref> Recording for "Is This What You Want?" began at EMI Studios in London in June 1968 and continued through the summer in between Harrison's work on the Beatles' White Album. While working alone at Trident Studios, down the hall from where the band were recording, Lomax was invited to