Forty-four years ago, the world was shocked by the murder of one of the world’s most excellent musicians, John Lennon, who was shot in front of his New York City apartment. Lennon had grown famous as a member of the Liverpudlian quartet, known as The Beatles, and continued to grow following the band’s dissolving in the late 1960s. Four years after his death, his widow, Yoko Ono, released his posthumous album, Milk and Honey, her last split album with her late husband.
The album opens with a count-in from Lennon on his track, “I’m Stepping Out,” and is followed by a summary of his ”house husband life” The next track is Ono’s “Sleepless Nights,” which is poorly written and sung. “I Don’t Wanna Face It” follows; it is a bit more ‘80s than most of Lennon’s work. It sounds similar to McCartney’s 1980 smash hit “Coming Up.” Salon magazine reported that, in 1980, this single caused Lennon to venture back into the recording world.
“Don’t Be Scared” is the fourth track and Ono’s second on the album. It’s a reggae-influenced number with simplistic lyrics, but it outperforms her first track on the album overall. Lennon returns with “Nobody Told Me,” a track originally intended for his former band member, Ringo Starr. “O’Sanity” comes after as Ono’s third song; the lyrics are simplistic, and the actual singing itself isn’t anything to write home about. “Borrowed Time” is the seventh track on the album and is a bittersweet reminder of Lennon’s death, with lyrics like “Now I am older/ The future is brighter and now is the hour.”
“Your Hands” is Ono’s fourth track on the album and her first on the album to have more of a stereotypical rock feel. The lyrics are mainly in Japanese, Ono’s native language, with small English lines between them. “(Forgive Me) My Little Flower Princess” is the second to last Lennon song on the album, and is an apology to Ono after an argument while Lennon was in Bermuda.
“Let Me Count the Ways” is Ono’s fifth track on the album and has a more home-demo vibe with vocals and piano; it’s a simple love song for Lennon written after his murder. Its inclusion on the album is genuinely emotional, as is “Grow Old With Me,” the last Lennon track on the album.
Ono wrote about it in 1983 by saying, “‘Grow Old With Me’ was a song John made several cassettes of… All of them disappeared since then except the one on the record. It may be that it was meant to be this way since the version that was left to us was John’s last recording. The one John and I recorded together in our bedroom…” Its home-demo recording vibe complements the previous track well and serves as a goodbye to Lennon. The album’s last track, ¨You’re The One,” is a lackluster ‘80s Synth-pop number from Ono with poor singing.
Overall, the album is all right; the Lennon parts are excellent, like most of his work, whereas Ono’s parts are all over the place in both musical quality and lyric quality. The album earns a 3.5/5 from The Bengal’s Purr.
