It's Alright (I See Rainbows)

It's Alright (I See Rainbows) is the sixth solo album by Yoko Ono, and her second release after the murder of husband John Lennon. As a variation of a theme concerning its predecessor, the back cover features a transparent image of Lennon in a then-contemporary photo of Yoko and Sean, depicted in Central Park. Released in 1982, all songs were written, composed, arranged, produced, and sung by Ono. It charted at #98 in the US.

It's Alright (I See Rainbows)
Studio album by
Released2 November 1982 (1982-11-02)[1]
StudioThe Hit Factory, New York City
Genre
Length36:43
LabelPolygram
ProducerYoko Ono
Yoko Ono chronology
Season of Glass
(1981)
It's Alright (I See Rainbows)
(1982)
Milk and Honey
(1984)
Singles from It's Alright (I See Rainbows)
  1. "My Man"
    Released: 1 November 1982 (US);[1] 26 November 1982 (UK)[1]
  2. "Never Say Goodbye"
    Released: 25 January 1983 (US)[1]

Background

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The album saw Yoko take her music in a more uplifting direction following 1981's Season of Glass, despite the "bulk" of the album's songs "deal[ing] with her unabated feelings of loss over Lennon."[2]

Yoko reflected on the making of the album when writing liner notes for the 1992 boxset Onobox:

The songs from It’s Alright were an attempt to do new sounds. I used shotguns for the backbeat. I brought Sean’s toy raygun to the studio to use it as a rhythm track. I was expecting the usual sneer I had gotten from the musicians and engineers whenever I had tried to do anything that was out of the ordinary. Surprisingly, no one was upset this time. It was ’82 and it seemed as though I was finally in sync with the world.

[...]

In a way, the It's Alright time was much more difficult for me as a woman, as a person, than when I had made Season Of Glass. Life went on. I had to walk and talk normally, while I knew that somewhere inside me there was a clock that had stopped in ’80.

— Yoko Ono, "ONOBOX by Yoko Ono". 23 April 2009.

In 1997, the album was remastered by Ono and Rob Stevens for release on CD by Rykodisc.[3] The 1997 release used newly remixed versions of all songs. Some of the original mixes had a CD release in 1992 on the Onobox set but the rest remain unreleased on CD to date.

Reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [4]
Rolling Stone     [2]

Billboard called it Ono's "most commercially accessible musical effort."[5] Writing for Rolling Stone, Kurt Loder noted its "committed and convincing avant-gardism", which produced a "synthesizer-based pop that’s more adventurous than much of the music currently being ground out by Europersons half her age."[2]

Track listing

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All songs written by Yoko Ono.

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."My Man"3:56
2."Never Say Goodbye"4:25
3."Spec of Dust"3:31
4."Loneliness"3:47
5."Tomorrow May Never Come"2:26
Side two
No.TitleLength
6."It's Alright"4:23
7."Wake Up"3:47
8."Let the Tears Dry"2:24
9."Dream Love"4:53
10."I See Rainbows"3:15
CD Reissue bonus tracks
No.TitleLength
11."Beautiful Boys" (Demo)2:00
12."You're the One" (Alternate take)4:50

Personnel

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Technical
  • Brian McGee, John Davenport, Jon Smith – engineer
  • Bob Gruen – photography

Charts

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Chart (1982–83) Peak
position
Total
weeks
U.S. Billboard 200 98 13

Release history

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Country Date Format Label Catalog
United States 2 November 1982[1] LP Polydor PD1-6364[6]
Cassette CT-1-6364[7]
United Kingdom 16 December 1982[1] LP POLD 5073[8]
Cassette POLDC 5073[8]
Germany 1982 LP 2391559[9]
Australia[10]
Japan January 1983 28MM 0241[11]
United States 1 July 1997[12] CD Rykodisc RCD 10422[13]
United Kingdom 26 August 1997[8]
Japan 1997

References

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