Wednesday, July 28, 2010

4. John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band

Counting down my favorite 25 albums of 1970:

John Lennon - Plastic Ono Band



John Lennon had released personal songs before before ('The Ballad of John and Yoko' and 'Cold Turkey' for example), but this album goes further; it's a therapeutic exercise where he lays bare all his neuroses and insecurities for examination and exorcism. It's almost as if he never intended an audience to listen to it; he doesn't seem to be trying to make any of it commercially appealing, or to conceal anything that might be embarrassing or reveal his vulnerabilities.

Because of it's unique nature, most of the tracks really don't stand alone out of context ('Working Class Hero' is an exception), but there's not one track on the album that shouldn't be there. The album as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

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