John Lennon

Double Fantasy

A heart play

Review Score:

(8/10)
The re-releasing of this album brings back an interesting point of discussion: how much was Yoko Ono involved in the musical work of John Lennon. The fact that John Lennon decided to share his "come-back" album (after five years of self-imposed seclusion to spend time with his son) with his wife, a different kind of artist herself, said enough about this point.

So it's hard to review an album like this. I think the right choice is to hear the album as an entity, and to try to appreciate what John and Yoko were trying to tell at the beginning of a new decade which brought a lot of expectatives and plans into their lives along with the happiness that the coming of Sean brought them.

From this point of view, one can say that John was happy. You can see it in some songs where he talks in a very relaxed mood about his life, his relationship with his son, his wife, and with the whole world. John's songs are gifted by an enormous quality, and, although he may have lost some of the pain, anger and raw feelings that made him record the masterpiece album "Plastic Ono Band" in 1970, his way of living now was also inspiring. Looking it at that way, John still rocks with tracks like "I'm Losing You" (highly improved, though, in the "Anthology" version) and the underrated masterpiece "Cleanup Time". He travels through the varied fields of pop (like in "Starting Over"), love ballads (the classic "Woman" is a timeless anthem about how much a man can owe to his other half), and oriental-arranged pop tunes ("Beautiful Boy" is a lovely ode to Sean, while "Dear Yoko" is a cheering track dedicated to the one who inspired most of John's solo work). In my opinion, the best track in the album is "Watching The Wheels", which demonstrates the position John had in the world in this new decade, and how much he wanted to live a life, and have some time just to sit there and watch how the world turned, with the peace of mind he couldn't find in the 60's. The bouns track "Help Me To Help Myself", a piano demo, is also lovely, and would have made a tremendous finished track, if John could have had the time to finish it...

Yoko tried to adequate her work to the pop standards, and while the results are not always pleasant (hence "Kiss Kiss Kiss", a horrid tune), she seems to fit in pretty well in another tracks: "Give Me Something" is a perfect follow-up to "I'm Losing You", and this song, joined by "I'm Moving On" (easily the best Yoko contribution to this CD) formed a kind of "suite" that is perfectly listenable. "Yes, I'm Your Angel" and "Beautiful Boys" are attempts to write pop songs, dedicated to her husband and son. Not particularly good. "Every Man Has A Woman Who Loves Him" has the advantage of having John in background vocals, but also has a great rhythm and it's a nice "dancing" tune (reminding of the bonus track, "Walking On Thin Ice", that song John was working on the day he died). John also does harmony on the heartbreaking "Hard Times Are Over" (another high by Yoko), which sounds even more tearful now we know that John passed away within days of the releasing of this album. So hard times were not over, they were just beginning. These bunch of songs make you think that Yoko WAS an artist, but she should have released her stuff apart from John's...

The sound of the remastered CD and the bonus tracks help the album to be better, although "Central Park Stroll" is too short. The sound has improvements, but the quality of the music is what has made this album a classic.

By hearing John and Yoko's tracks on this CD you should be able to appreciate the feelings of both, and the experience of living years that seemed to have a brightful future, but were suddenly cut by John's death. This was a happy album, but now it's been associated with the pain that John's death brought to the world. Try not to fall into that. Follow the original spirit of this CD and enjoy the simple things on life. No matter how your life is, there will be some time when hard times are going to be over.

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