(Manimal) Related: Yoko Ono: ‘To be an artist you need courage’ Those familiar with Ono’s 2007 collaborative album Yes,I’m a Witch will know roughly what to expect for its follow-up: a rag-tag collection of leftfield noise-makers (Tune-Yards, Cibo Matto), and indie-pop vanguardists (Miike Snow,Peter Bjorn & John), art-rock legends (Sparks) and curveball choices who capture her original vocal recordings and run riot with them. She still has a laissez-faire attitude to genre: there’s poolside disco-house (Penguin Prison’s She Gets Down on Her Knees), or meat’n’potatoes electro (Dave Audé’s Wouldnit),in which the straightforward beats are contrasted with lyrics that allude to domestic abuse), wiggy psych (Dogtown, and with son Sean Lennon) and Death Cab for Cutie (there’s that curveball) trying out trip-hop on Forgive Me My Love. Approximately Inifinite Universe revives electro-rockabilly,while Tune-Yards’ Warrior Woman is a joyful clash of jazz-skronk and performance poetry. What unifies them are Ono’s ruminations on her past and death: songs such as Mrs Lennon, Coffin Car and No Bed for Beatle John – a brilliant track that pairs Ono’s eerie falsetto with majestic Hudson Mohawke-style horns and a Chicago footwork beat, and produced by Ebony Bones – will no doubt rile the witch-hunters still looking to throw her on a pyre. But the album paints a pleasingly knowing portrait of the 83-year-mature giving her final say and raving it up regardless.
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Source: theguardian.com