10 Disappointing Albums By Legendary Bands

After coming out of the Beatles' breakup, John Lennon seemed to have a lot more to say than your average peace and love sentiments. As the Vietnam War continued to rage on, the Intellectual Beatle was starting to make his voice heard a lot louder than his former Fabs, writing songs like Power to the People and Give Peace a Chance to promote the message of a better world without war. All of that sloganeering seemed to be paying off in spades, but Some Time in New York City is where everything started to hit a brick wall.

Although most Lennon fans blame this album's failure on Yoko Ono's involvement with the project, Yoko actually tends to have some of the best cuts on here, with songs like Sisters O Sisters having a fun '50s rock and roll feel to it. Compared to the cutting lines he had written before though, Lennon seems to come up short, either being too controversial by using a racial slur in the lyrics to one of his songs or sounding more like a pale imitation of Bob Dylan on songs like Luck of the Irish.

Though gems like New York City do pick up the energy a lot more, the second disc of this double album makes for one of the most grating listens of his solo career, being comprised of two live performances that he gave around this time which amounts to a pure cacophony of noise whenever listened to for more than a few minutes. Having new John Lennon songs out in the world is rarely ever a bad thing, but Some Time in New York City feels like a record that sounds much better in concept than it is in practice.