November 13, 2002

The music made by John Lennon after the demise of the Beatles generally inspired platitudes about the message he had for the world (we need to live as one, etc.), which is to say the music wasn't very good. The truth is, the wisdom he had to pass along wasn't all that either, but he was a Beatle, for god's sake, and you couldn't exactly say his albums sucked.

But a lot of Mind Games does suck, and if you don't believe it, pick up the reissue, produced for the occasion by Yoko Ono with help from son Sean Lennon, among others, and see for yourself. The idea of finding three bonus tracks sounds cool (unreleased material by a Beatle! Far out!), but they don't deliver much jolt to an album that sorely needs something. The title cut (a New Age-y take on human potential), which reached number 10 on the Billboard charts in December 1973, is strictly mediocre (boring music with an overblown arrangement and the line "Love is the answer," which is not the answer to the problems the tune has). Still, it's a lot better than dreck like "Bring On the Lucie," which boasts the memorable chorus "Free the people now / Do it do it do it do it now."