Plastic Ono Band
John Lennon
(EMI)
When John Lennon's post-Beatles career crops up, most people immediately think of the pop smashes that merit entries in most karaoke bars, namely Imagine and Woman. While these are indeed iconic tunes, we've heard them so often that they hardly register.
But dig back further to this, the first record of the bearded Liverpudlian's solo career, and witness a finer sensitivity of vocal range, composition and mood swings.
The thematic content here would no doubt provide a psychoanalyst with more material than several hours of consultation, were that possible with the late musician. Angsty songs about his mother start and finish this collection. Love is the closest Lennon gets on the album to the stripped-down sound of Imagine and the only track that finds him tranquil in sound and lyric.
