Search - Yoko Ono, Ima :: Rising

Yoko tries something new:)...

Beketaten | Pangea | 04/20/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"If you read the liner notes, and the lyrics, you might be slightly afraid to listen to this album. It is about fighting her sadness and lonliness and growing up amidst the horrors of war. Yoko compellingly compares her friends in New York struck with AIDS, to the sufferings of the people in Hiroshima. It is an album where she expells her demons, but manages to bring you up again to a safe shore...and show you some Great music/instrumentation, feeling and just about everything else with her son Sean Lennon's band IMA. It manages to have a Fresh alternative sound and keep the listener interested.
Very Yoko--Very reccomended! ^_^"

Best comeback album since Shiny Beast (Bat Chain Puller)

Michael Russell | Philadelphia, PA, USA | 08/24/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yoko was 62 when she recorded this deeply moving CD, and she sounds far more energetic and imaginative than any 20-something recording at the time (with the possible exceptions of OutKast and PJ Harvey). Her best work since Season of Glass, and one of her finest ever, several tracks find her returning to her early-70s full-throated vocal style. And Yoko's still got it, although her voice is lower-pitched this time around.Backed by Sean Ono Lennon's band IMA, Rising plows through a wide variety of styles: The NINish rush of "Warzone," the muted jazz of "Kurushi," the avant-hip-hop of "Ask the Dragon," the crowd-surfing punk of "I'm Dying." Yoko effortlessly adapts to mid-90s styles, which makes sense considering how many current styles she did first. Check out Yoko Ono/ Plastic Ono Band, Fly, Life With the Lions and parts of Approximately Infinite Universe and Feeling the Space if you don't believe me.Despite a few upbeat tracks, an eerie sense of loss, grief and anger pervades the CD. The liner notes link the mood to Hiroshima and AIDS, but the songs are not limited to those two interpretations. Although many songs are genuinely disturbing, especially I'm Dying and Kurushi, Yoko retains her old idealism. In the title track, Yoko uses her one-of-a-kind vocal convulsions to break through to a hard-earned optimism. Her final words on the CD are "I love you," and she doesn't sound a bit contrived. Amazingly, this CD has been out of print for years. Rykodisc has done a superb job reissuing Yoko's 60s, 70s and 80s work. I hope they bring back Yoko's late-career masterpiece soon."

Ground breaking

tiraz birdie | lawrence, ks United States | 08/30/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"A deeply moving, spiritual experience listening to this album. The final song Revelations is penetrating. If she wrote the words herself for that song without inspirtion from a written or verbal source, then in she is a guru in disguise."