John Lennon (post-Beatles)

1968 Unfinished Music No 1: Two Virgins (1)

A purely experimental album that can (and should) be listen to from the beginning to the end without interruption, as it forms a single musical composition with seamless transitions between its various sections. It's divided into 12 tracks, including 10 original ones (from "Two Virgins No 1" to "Two Virgins No 10") and two covers ("Together" and "Hushabye Hushabye"). Obviously not for all tastes, but positively mainstream (and brilliant) when compared to the really strange "Wedding Album", released the following year. 

1969 Unfinished Music No 2: Life With The Lions (5)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's second experimental album. Uneven, but often fascinating and very original. The most impressive track is "No Bed For Beatle John" consisting of Lennon and Ono singing the text of press clippings about themselves in a cappella chant style. "Cambridge 1969" has Yoko Ono screaming accompanied by electric guitar feedback from Lennon. The screams on this track are way better than similar screams from "John & Yoko" on the "Wedding Album" (1969). Less impressive, but still original, is "Radio Play", which includes sounds of a radio with brief moments of Lennon and Ono having a conversation and Lennon making a phone call in the background. However, two other tracks are completely ill-conceived. "Baby's Heartbeat" is a looped infant mortality recording, made with a Nagra microphone, of John Ono Lennon II's ill-fated actual palpitations. And "Two Minutes Silence" is a completely silent track. 

1969 Wedding Album (2)

John Lennon and Yoko Ono's worst album ever, and possibly the worst album ever released, by anyone. Only two tracks, "John & Yoko" and "Amsterdam". The first has John and Yoko screaming each other's names, through a range of volume, tempos, and emotions, over the sound of their heartbeats. The second consists mostly of interviews and conversations explaining their campaign for peace, as well as some musical interludes. To say that neither is particularly impressive would be a serious understatement. However, there is a truly hilarious anecdote related to this album. Melody Maker critic Richard Williams was given two single-sided test pressings for his review. Each had a blank side featuring only an engineer's test signal, but Williams mistook it for a double album. In his review, he noted that sides two and four consisted entirely "of single tones maintained throughout, presumably produced electronically", and that the pitch of the notes appeared to change slightly. Lennon and Ono sent a telegram to Williams thanking him for his review and writing: "We both feel that this is the first time a critic topped the artist. We are not joking."

1970 John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (11)

John Lennon's first solo album after leaving the Beatles. Two classic songs: "Mother" and "Love". Four very good tracks: "Hold On", "God", "Look At Me" and "Working Class Hero". And five terrible songs that would have been unceremoniously rejected by the other three Beatles if John had ever tried to record them earlier: "My Mummy's Dead", "Remember", "Isolation", "I Found Out" and especially "Well Well Well".

1971 Imagine (10)

Probably John Lennon's greatest solo album. One timeless masterpiece, "Imagine", as well as eight excellent tracks: "Jealous Guy", "How Do You Sleep?" (Paul McCartney's least favourite song), "Oh Yoko!", "Crippled Inside", "How?", "Oh My Love", "Gimme Some Truth" and "It's So Hard". Only one weak song: "I Don't Want To Be A Soldier".

1972 Some Time In New York City (10)

John Lennon's second worst album. Four songs by Yoko Ono. Two cover songs. And among John Lennon's nine original songs, only three are memorable: "The Luck Of The Irish", "John Sinclair" and "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World". The remaining six range from fine ("Angela") to mediocre ("Attica State", "New York City" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday") to downright embarrassing ("Au" and "Scumbag"). "Cold Turkey", a John Lennon single from 1969, is fine. "Attica State" denounces the American judicial and penal system with such lyrics as "Free the prisoners, jail the judges", but ironically, Lennon's own murderer, Mark David Chapman, was incarcerated in the Attica State Correctional Facility for 31 years. It's unbelievable just how vastly inferior "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is to the magnificent U2 song of the same title. And "Woman Is The Nigger Of The World" predictably caused quite a scandal, even though (unlike The Rolling Stones with "Some Girls"), John Lennon wasn't even trying to be provocative, just sincerely dumb and naive.

1973 Mind Games (12)

One might argue which song by a post-Beatles John Lennon is the best (#9 Dream" or "Imagine"), but there is no argument about which song is the worst: "Nutopian International Anthem", this album's sixth track, is the undisputed champion in that category, not only because it doesn't actually contain any sound (after all, "Two Minutes Silence" from the "Unfinished Music No 2: Life With The Lions" has that very same quality), but also because of its ridiculous short length (3 seconds). But the rest of the album is excellent (except, perhaps, for "Meat City"). "Mind Games" is a masterpiece. "Intuition" and "Bring On The Lucie (Freda Peeple)" are both incredibly impressive. "Only People", "One Day (At A Time)", "Tight A$", "Aisumasen (I'M Sorry)" and "I Know (I Know)" are very good. And even "You Are Here" and "Out The Blue" are quite fine.

1974 Walls And Bridges (11)

Two timeless classics: "#9 Dream" (arguably John Lennon's greatest post-Beatles song) and "Whatever Gets You Thru The Night". Three weak and disappointing songs: "Going Down On Love", "Bless You" and "Beef Jerky". And six fine tracks that fall somewhere in between: "Surprise Surprise (Sweet Bird Of Paradox)", "Nobody Loves You (When You're Down And Out)", "Steel And Glass", "What You Got", "Scared" and "Old Dirt Road". "Ya Ya" is a cover song.

1975 Shaved Fish (4)

A compilation album that includes four excellent singles: "Give Peace a Chance" (1969), "Instant Karma! (We All Shine On)" (1970), "Power To The People" (1971) and "Happy Xmas (War Is Over)" (1971).

1980 Double Fantasy (8)

John Lennon's final album before his death. Fourteen songs, including seven by Yoko Ono. Among John Lennon's seven songs, four are among his very best: "Woman", "Watching The Wheels", "(Just Like) Starting Over" and "Beautiful Boy (Darling Boy)". "Dear Yoko" and "I'M Losing You" are also very good. Only "Cleanup Time" is quite forgettable. The 2000 reissue of the album include a bonus track with a rather weak song, "Help Me To Help Myself". 

1984 Milk And Honey (6)

Six songs by Yoko Ono. And six songs by John Lennon. Two classics: "Nobody Told Me" (the best song on the album) and "Borrowed Time" (a close second). There are also four other good songs: "Grow Old With Me", "I'M Stepping Out", "I Don't Wanna Face It" and "(Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess".

1998 John Lennon Anthology (12)

A compilation album that also includes 12 John Lennon home recordings that were never released before: "God Save Oz", "Dear John", "Do the Oz", "It's Real", "Life Begins at 40", "The Great Wok", "Mr. Hyde's Gone (Don't Be Afraid)", "My Life", "The Rishi Kesh Song", "Stranger's Room", "Serve Yourself" and "Satire". They are quite unimpressive, except for the brilliantly satiric "Serve Yourself". 

Songs written for Ringo Starr (3):

weak "I'M The Greatest" (Ringo, 1973)

very good "(It's All Down To) Goodnight Vienna" (Goodnight Vienna, 1974)

fine "Cookin' (In the Kitchen of Love)" (Ringo's Rotogravure, 1976)

Other songs (5):

unimpressive "Here We Go Again" (1973)

weak "Move Over Ms L" (1975)

excellent "Mucho Mungo" (1976)

unimpressive "India India" (1980)

disappointing "Rock and Roll People" (1986)