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? demos at the company's original headquarters, on Baker Street in central London.<ref name="Davis/liner notes">Liner notes by Andy Davis, "Is This What You Want?" CD booklet (Apple/EMI, 2010; produced by George Harrison, Jackie Lomax, Mal Evans & Paul McCartney).</ref> John Lennon was the first to suggest he should consider becoming a solo artist, and with the formation of Apple Records in early 1968, George Harrison committed to producing an album by Lomax on the new label. Lomax later admitted he was concerned that the album might never get made since he was unsure whether Harrison would ever come back from India,