Yoko Ono’s latest collaboration album is the perfect way to get acquainted with her kooky, hypnotising vocals. A treat for a through-the-looking-glass Sunday afternoon, says Julia Rebaudo
Getting hooked on John and Yoko’s Milk & Honey album at a young age meant that when I later understood Yoko was blamed for the split-up of The Beatles, I couldn’t quite take it to heart, even though The Beatles had shaped my music appreciation right from the beginning. Even now, you’ll find vehement and vitriolic words written about this kooky, one-off musical lady. And I can’t help but think, get over it.
So that debate aside, what have we got here? Yes, I’m a Witch is a collaboration album featuring a whole range of indie and electro musicians who have taken Yoko’s utterly unique vocals and built new tracks around them. The Flaming Lips, Peaches, Polyphonic Spree and Antony Hegarty (of Antony and the Johnsons) are just some of the artists who have reinterpreted Yoko’s songs.
The album is a great way to ease yourself into the weird and wonderful world of Yoko Ono. You just won’t have heard anything else like it. Her delivery, annunciation, warbling screams and moans are just so refreshingly different and eye opening. But placed against familiar electronic beats and synths in the re-workings by Peaches, DJ Spooky and Shitake Monkey, the general chaos of the Flaming Lips and the simple strums of Antony Hegarty, Yoko’s song-writing is served up in the most palatable way.
Yes, I’m a Witch was released 19 February 2007 on Parlophone.
