{"id":41261,"date":"2008-12-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-10T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/mind-games\/"},"modified":"2008-12-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T00:00:00","slug":"mind-games","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/mind-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Mind Games"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Whether you favor McCartney, <st1:place>Harrison<\/st1:place>, or Starr\u2019s post-Beatles solo work, there\u2019s no getting around the fact that John Lennon\u2019s solo career was certainly the most remarkable, even if at times it\u2019s the messiest. Though Lennon\u2019s work was often tainted with the angering &#8212; and phenomenally unpleasant &#8212; addition of Yoko Ono\u2019s \u201ccreative\u201d input, his post-Beatles output still stands out among the others. This might have mostly to do with his persona, which often infected the recordings both musically and lyrically, but one could also argue that Lennon was simply the most talented of the bunch.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">The jury\u2019s still out on that one. <o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Nestled between 1972\u2019s highly criticized and politically-charged <i>Sometime In New York City\/Live Jam<\/i> and 1974\u2019s spotty <i>Walls And Bridges<\/i> is 1973\u2019s <i>Mind Games<\/i>. An album recognized both upon its release in 1973 and retrospectively as a return-to-form for Lennon, <i>Mind Games <\/i>is about as solid a pop record as one could have hoped for in the early \u201870s. <o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">And a \u201cpop\u201d record it sure as hell is.<o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">Great songs aside, one of the best features of <i>Mind Games<\/i> is the absence of any Yoko Ono input whatsoever. In fact, upon the album\u2019s release, Lennon and Ono would embark on a fourteen-month separation from one another (what a brilliant and liberating idea). Also absent is Phil Spector, who had produced the first three solo Lennon records, and although it\u2019s clear Spector sat this one out, the record\u2019s quality doesn\u2019t suffer as a result. <o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\"><i>Mind Games\u2019<\/i> best tracks are also some of the best of Lennon\u2019s career. The strength of successful hit singles like the title track and \u201cOne Day (At A Time)\u201d do a fine job of making the record worthwhile, but other finely crafted tunes like \u201cAisumasen (I\u2019m Sorry),\u201d \u201cIntuition,\u201d \u201cOut The Blue,\u201d and \u201cOnly People\u201d push the album into the category of Lennon\u2019s most focused and cohesive efforts. <o:p><\/o:p><\/p>\n<p class=\"MsoNormal\">While not his most stunning nor his most bizarre (or annoying), <i>Mind Games<\/i> is perhaps one of the better showcases of Lennon\u2019s powerful songwriting capability and definitely a display of his pop sensibilities. There\u2019s nothing offensive or unpleasant here, and the tracks that don\u2019t make the cut as his best are still utterly enjoyable and utterly John Lennon.\u00a0 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":29662,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7187],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-41261","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-john-lennon","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29662"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41261"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41261"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}