Customer Reviews

Between My Head and the Sky [Vinyl]

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Yoko Ono's new album is an amazing piece of work/art. It's a beautiful album that blends her past music to her present music. This is an album awaited for many years from her many fans. The album is perfection and couldn't be better. Her vocals are as strong and perfect as ever! May Yoko Ono bring us more art and music very very soon because her many fans have waited too long. May there be a US tour as well! Small towns have many Yoko Ono fans as well as the cities! May the queen of art keep bringing us music and art to learn from! I love you Yoko!

Her new album kicks off in style with a funky rockin' freak out, "Waiting For The D Train." When I first saw that title as the album opener, I thought that perhaps the 76 year old artist had images of death on her mind. Was this album a quiet farewell?

Nothing like. Well, something like- but certainly not that opening number. When was the last time you heard an album open like this- let alone an album by a 76 year old?

The album changes gear often, and sometimes dramatically, as Yoko wrestles with ideas of her lovers, legacy, life, and oncoming death. Stand out tracks are the danceable "The Sun is Down," the psychedelic "Calling," the hard hitting "Between My Head And The Sky," and the dreamy "Feel The Sand."

The album readies for the close with a trio of songs led by piano- an instrument that weighs heavily in Yoko's life and home. Here Yoko seems her most open and contemplative. As she invokes images of shuddering coughs, invisible walls, and those she'll leave behind- she also asks, "why is this life so beautiful?"

The last track on the album is a sweet surprise, and reminds us that Yoko is at heart an earnest, funny, soul.

I don't love Yoko, but I like her a lot :) BETWEEN MY HEAD AND THE SKY is a mostly very solid piece of work, considerably better than 2001's BLUEPRINT FOR A SUNRISE. Some of the tracks may sound half-finished, with vocals and lyrics that are an awkward fit to the music, but when BETWEEN succeeds, as it does most of the time, it's quite a heady listening experience. The title track is classic Yoko: funky, fierce, and darkly funny. And I imagine even longtime Yoko detractors could come away from touching ballads "I'm Going Away Smiling," "Unun. To," and "Higa Noboru" feeling their hardened hearts at least a little softened.


By the way, be sure to check out Ono's collaboration with Basement Jaxx, "Day Of The Sunflowers (We March On)." It's on the Basement Jaxx album SCARS, and it's crazy kooky brilliant.

I love this CD! I have been a huge fan of Yoko Ono ever since I found an old 45 record with Yoko and Elephants memory!After that, I was hooked! This new CD is really very good...I especially like track #4! I hope we continue to hear from Yoko for a long long time!

I heard some of these songs played on line,and Yoko and Sean performing on The View.It was such a moving moment seeing this Mother and Son teaming up together.Sean Lennon has turned into a great Young Man his Father would be proud of,and a great musician.
This CD isn't for everyone,just fans of this type of music that Yoko Invented HERSELF years ago that help spark the punk rock movement.
In 1981 I bought Yoko's album,"Season of Glass," and was blow away by some of her songs,produced by Phil Spector,Especially the first cut,"Goodbye Sadness,about her late GREAT husband."This record has that same feeling.If you are a fan,your going to love this CD,It's getting alot of notice and awards.

Astounding. Beautiful. Magical. Eclectic. Visionary.
It seems silly to try to translate this music into words.
Just listen.

Very few important albums are released these days.
THIS is an important album. The illusive "Plastic Ono Band" flys again, and this time, modern music is almost caught up to Yoko Ono. It only took us forty years to sync-up to her vision.
With creative son Sean, Yuka Honda and friends, this music is powerful, tough, beautiful and touching - all at the same time.
I encourage anyone to expand their minds and Hearts with "Between My Head and The Sky". Thank you, Yoko.

not surprising because it's yoko, but surprising because of the sound(s). if you took yoko's name and face off the cd, a lot of people would like it a lot more.

it reminds me in places of talking heads' "remain in light"--propulsive, unpredictable, a creative mash-up of genres and rhythms. not everything is up my alley. the songs i least care for are "healing" and "memory of footsteps", which are a little too twee and precious for me. favorites: the title track, "waiting for the d-train", "the sun is down", "hashire hashire".

i think this will end up on my list of favorite albums of 2009.

Yoko Ono, now age 76, cannot be stopped these days. After a more than passable 2007 album "Yes, I'm a Witch" now comes yet another new studio album issued under the "Yoko Ono PLastic Ono Band" nomiker, surrounding herself on this collection with son Sean Lennon and his band, and other assorted studio musicians.

"Between My Head and the Sky" (15 tracks; 59 min.) starts off with a funky "Waiting For the D Train", which is then followed by THE must-hear track of this album, a 5 min. wildely eccentric but oh-so entertaining "The Sun Is Down!". Another loosely structured jam "Ask the Elephant!" comes next. What a stunning 1-2-3 opening set. Understandably things setlle down after that a bit, including pensive tracks like "Memory of Footsteps" and "Healing". But check out "Moving Mountains", an instrumental with Ono's wailing on top and distorted trumpets in the background, wow. I rate the first half of the album 4.5 stars. The second half of the album is not as strong, although "Hashire, Hashire" is a jazzy free-flowing track which makes you wanna get up and dance. The title train is hard-charging tune with great guitar work from Sean Lennon. But the 6 min. "Feel the Sand" ballad (Ono-style, of course) goes on for far too long. I rate the second half 3.5 stars. Cut 3 or 4 of the weaker tracks and we have a 4.5 stars album here, but then again this is Yoko Ono, and she's gonna do whatever she's gonna do.

And have I mentioned that Yoko Ono is 76? It is simply stunning to hear her at the top of her game, as she clearly is on this album. And it gives all of us (or certainly me) hope that getting old(er) doesn't mean once cannot enjoy rock music anymore, even an album as experimental and free-spirited as "Between My Head and the Sky".

What a surprise! I really like this a lot! Yes, I'm A Witch brought Yoko Ono back into my vocabulary with curious enthusiasm, even the youngsters in earshot thought that was cool. Between My Head And The Sky continues in that vein with vigor and this time with just the one band. . . the new Plastic Ono Band! The musicians are great and I appreciate how the musical genre throughout the disk goes from one spectrum to the other, quite tastefully. The young Lennon is showing a bit of his father's influence in his guitar playing on Waiting For The D Train and I like that very much, too. The bass, the drums, wind instruments, keyboards, electronics, Yoko's poetic vocals all fit together beautifully. The band is a fantastic group of talented young people who've come together as the Plastic Ono Band . . . They're great! Ok . . . They're on my dinner guest list . . . seaweed salad? extra ginger? miso soup? Whatever you like, Yoko . . . The world may finally see what a lovely, talented and thoughtful woman you are. Thank you.