I really dislike every single song on that album.  I've given it a few listens, and the only thing I can say to the likers is WTF? On a website that rates albums, this was the highest scoring one.  Again, Imagine and Double Fantasy IMO would qualify for that, NOT this one.

The songs are so EMPTY and resentful.  We all know Lennon as a pessimist, but does that mean the songs are supposed to sound better because of it? God is VERY repetitive.  Working Class Hero sounds so bland.  It reminds me of that song, whatever the title is, the goes, "One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you." Those songs just don't have the notes and dynamic variation or beauty to hold my interest.

Most of the songs I've heard sound empty, probably because there's Lennon, a bass, and Ringo playing drums.  I can't stand it! Imagine Album all the way, IMHO. 

Probably - yes!

i agree.you probally are........

"empty"?.....

You've got to understand that the album was recorded because John was involved in Primal Scream Therapy, which helped fim open up and release all his negative feelings. I grant you that you have to be pretty down and depressed to really appreciate the album, but it's a work of genius and very powerful in what it wants to accomplish.

WTF??

he is the guy in the middle

Everyone has their own opinion.....production wise, and lyrically, it's a bleak release, and I could see some people not liking it as much as Imagine....if you want to get to know John, POB is the best, but if you're looking for the closest thing to a Beatles album, then Imagine is definitely it.

I don't get why everyone thinks it's great.  It just sounds like a guy who's pissed that's TRYING to make songs out of it.  All the songs I've heard on it are so primitive and boring.  Nothing Strawberry Fields, Help!, Imagine, or Starting Over quality at all.  Not one good track, either.

Quoted Text

if you want to get to know John, POB is the best, but if you're looking for the closest thing to a Beatles album, then Imagine is definitely it.

I'd agree with this. But that's the problem with a lot of fans - all they want is the Beatles.
Glad John addressed that in the classic, "GOD".

If someone's coming to John fresh, it must indeed sound simple and bleak and not worth playing.  I don't find that hard to buy at all.  In fact Mother has to be one of my least favorite songs ever.

For someone who lived thru that time and felt his resentment and confusion and pain thanks to the breakup (and Yoko probably) then the songs were pregnant with meaning as well as great insight and value.

From a strictly musical standpoint the songs ARE simple, because he was purposely avoiding any Beatlesque production, the same idea for LIB but now he could control it.  And of course the subject matters lent themselves to sparse production.  And so for what it was and what it was supposed to be, it is beautifully realized.

Still, it doesn't make for a real finger-snapping, happy party-mood listening.  Not that it was meant to...he was basically tossing that part of himself aside, denying the moptop facade and putting more of himself into being a real artist than he ever would again. 

Anyway, songs like Look At Me and Love are certainly not depressing and are quite lovely.  God is meant to be repetitive, because it's the words that are important.  But I still like it.  Well Well Well is a great little slice of r & r.

One of John's all time best solo songs, Isolation, is a wonderfully constructed song musically, and tho the lyrics may seem bleak it is still a great piece of work.

So I don't think it can be ALL characterized as bleak or maudlin.  It heavily leans that way, yes.  And I certainly understand someone not finding the greatness in it.  I rarely ever play it myself...just one of those things I quietly appreciate and listen to once every year or two perhaps.  Which makes it just about perfect by the time I listen again.

GREAT post, Mr. Charlie.

I rarely play the album these days myself. But as I've said elsewhere, of all the hundreds of albums I've heard in my life, none has ever grabbed me like this one, the first time I heard it as a growing 16 year old kid, filled with feelings of confusion, depression,  and frustrations. A masterpiece - for what it intends to be; not going by what people expect or want it to be.

I don't see any problems in people disliking POB, everybody has different opinions and tastes, but calling the album 'garbage' is totally crazy

Quoted from Joe_Karlosi, posted July 21, 2004, 2:59am at here

GREAT post, Mr. Charlie.

I rarely play the album these days myself. But as I've said elsewhere, of all the hundreds of albums I've heard in my life, none has ever grabbed me like this one, the first time I heard it as a growing 16 year old kid, filled with feelings of confusion, depression,  and frustrations. A masterpiece - for what it intends to be; not going by what people expect or want it to be.

Thanks.

Given it's bare and desolate nature someone hearing it out of the blue and expecting the more produced and less openly despressed John might have a visceral and bad reaction to it. 

I don't find that odd or troublesome at all.  There are certainly classic albums that *I* don't get to this day, after years of trying to listen.  It is indeed just a matter of taste.  I myself have declared beloved works to be shite.  Perhaps we all have.  So I don't mind someone feeling it's just crap.  At least fright explained WHY he/she felt the way they did and explained it pretty well I think.

The album itself will stand for itself as what it is.  ALways has, it's us that brings our POV to what we hear.

Quoted from Bruno, posted July 21, 2004, 2:59am at here

I don't see any problems in people disliking POB, everybody has different opinions and tastes, but calling the album 'garbage' is totally crazy

Yeah, I can listen to POB (my favorite solo album btw) and Imagine back to back without really noticing much of a difference.....it's John through and through. I honestly don't see how anyone could dislike a track like "Remember" and also enjoy The Beatles.....that track, for example, is a very well written piece that rivals any of John's other solo tracks....it even holds up well against the Fab Four. So yeah, I'm kind of surprised that anyone would slag it off as garbage.....I think Fright Wolf read all of our acclaim for it and thought he was going to get Abbey Road or something, and then was rather disappointed......if he gives it a few more spins, he might start to enjoy it.....this is John, not the Beatles.

Quoted from Frightwolf, posted July 20, 2004, 9:54pm at here

I really dislike every single song on that album.  I've given it a few listens, and the only thing I can say to the likers is WTF? On a website that rates albums, this was the highest scoring one.  Again, Imagine and Double Fantasy IMO would qualify for that, NOT this one.

The songs are so EMPTY and resentful.  We all know Lennon as a pessimist, but does that mean the songs are supposed to sound better because of it? God is VERY repetitive.  Working Class Hero sounds so bland.  It reminds me of that song, whatever the title is, the goes, "One of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you." Those songs just don't have the notes and dynamic variation or beauty to hold my interest.

Most of the songs I've heard sound empty, probably because there's Lennon, a bass, and Ringo playing drums.  I can't stand it! Imagine Album all the way, IMHO. 

Judging by a couple of things you've said elsewhere (for example, Come Together, Something, Maxwell's Silver Hammer, Octopus' Garden, Oh! Darlin, Here Comes The Sun, The final suite, and the 40 seconds of Her Majesty decimate the rest.  NONE of those are mediocre ), I don't wonder you say WTF to JL/POB. Your tastes are clearly preventing you from seeing what the album is about.