DBWI: John Lennon's New Album

No... just, no.

It was bad enough when Paul McCartney performed with Jay-Z and Linkin Park at the Grammys[1]. While Lennon's duet with Lady Gaga at the Super Bowl was good, I really really dislike his experimental stuff. It's like a relapse of his Yoko days crossed with an aging legend's attempts to cash in on modern trends. I mean it was cool when they got back together in the late '90s, and the Peace and Reconciliation tour with the Rolling Stones was legendary, but nowadays John Lennon has barely more artistic credibility than Tom Jones! Look at all of the collaborations he's been in lately. The new Madonna album, Bruno Mars, M.I.A., Skrillex?!? [2] Face it, he was great in the day, but he's one of those artists who go in more and more bizarre directions in their dotage. Yes, his acoustic stuff is always good, but look at all of the crazier tracks on the album! The humanity! I will say I'm looking forward to his role on the upcoming Adele album, though.

[1] This actually happened.

[2] It could happen!

I don't actually know anything about John Lennon.





Feel free to disregard this post if it's too much of a thread-breaker.
 
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OOC: Not necessarily. The Beatles can still break up and it's not as if any of the former members have had spectacular solo careers that changed the shape of music significantly. What's another ex-Beatle?
 

sharlin

Banned
I like it, some of the songs are very good but then again I can't stand 'we are the people' and 'tomorrow starts today', he'll no doubt get a number one and good luck to him.
 
I guess it depends on what you think of Lennon' solo career -- consensus seems to be that, while his first album with Yoko was decent, he didn't really record anything else coming close to great until the last decade or so.* In that vein, I can get behind praising the album -- like his best recent work, there's no attempt to be deep, the acoustics rock, and the guests don't get in the way (the duet with Gaga was actually some of her best work)...

*I've heard a smatter of people praise Imagine as his best solo work, but I don't get it
 
I quite like his new stuff, particularly the track he recorded with Osmosis (1). I think Kanye West features on another track on the album, though I haven't heard that one yet.

True he had a bit of a lul in creativity in the 80's and 90's (though I am starting to like his Ebiza-enspired work a bit more). This probably wasn't helped by his refusal to play at Live Ade-his sales took a hit as a result of that decision and it took a long time for his career to get back on track.

I agree with everyone on here-Lennon's best work is when he's not trying to be "deep" or "creative"-he's just being... Lennon.

(1) In OTL Osmosis is a little known wrapper who recorded a song called Imagine (The Dreamer) in 2006. It's pretty obvious who he samples in that song, one of the ironic butterflies here is that he's more successful (though he doesn't record that song).
 
It's utter rubish. The man hasn't done anything decent in music since Yoko Ono pried him away from the Beetles. That single with Skrillix just made even his mostg fervent supporters realize it.
 

JoeMulk

Banned
I think he's had his moments and actually liked his duet with Lady Gaga but really the best moments of the past decade were the Beatles surprise reunion on Letterman on February 7, 2004 commemorating the 40th anniversary of there appearence on Ed Sullivan and Lennon's surprise appearance at CBGB's later that year. Nice that he successfully lobbied Mayor Green to have the city declare it a historic landmark. Other then that it's been all downhill.
 
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