There is no doubt that every song on It's Alright is directly or indirectly inspired by John Lennon, but, unlike Season Of Glass, Ono's last album, which included some moments of despair and bitterness among the more hopeful and assertive ones, It's Alright finds Yoko looking ahead with a strong will to survive and live a full life. When the title track begins with son Sean rousing Yoko from bed and intoning "Mommy, you have to wake up," the double meaning is obvious. "I know," Ono replies, and we know that she does know and that she has awakened, although it was the most difficult thing she's ever had to do. Her positive inflection as she repeatedly announces "It's alright" and adds "We're gonna make it," is assuring, even though her rationalization that "There many of us in history!' might be less than a convincing argument for having to deal with the situation Ono has faced. Each song contains similar announcements-rendered clearly and directly unlike Ono's abstruse lyrics of the past-perhaps intended for her public as well as herself. "Let the tears dry," she sings in the song of that name, a funereal marching-rhythm song that opens with three shots. "Yesterday may scar us forever," she sings in another, "Tomorrow May Never Come" (a belated answer to Lennon's "Tomorrow Never Knows"?). But she finally states her case simply in the finale,"I See Rainbows": "I don't want to be mugged by some mother/I don't want to be shot for ten dollar/What's this talk about limited holocaust/Have a heart, I don't even want my roof to leak." Instead, says Ono,"l wanna survive." That Ono has a lot to say in her first PolyGram album is not unexpected. But if this was nothing more than a collection of words, it wouldn't be as special as it is. What is wonderful is that she says it with music that is easily her most accessible and well written ever. Backed with a group of all-star session players, Ono produced It's Alright herself and proved to the world that no one knows how to make a better Yoko Ono album than the woman herself. Most of the tracks are set to dance floor rhythms that rank with any other currently echoing throughout any club's sound system. Her choice of using electronic instrumentation for these uptempo tracks is wise, and her application of them is simple and tasteful, while for the ballads Ono preferred to use dense orchestration involving multiple keyboards and percussion. She places her own vocal in the background at times to stress the arrangements, while at other times she makes a point by pronouncing her message loudly and clearly. It's Alright is a statement of musical growth for Yoko Ono. Anyone who still refuses to take her seriously as a viable contemporary recording artist had better listen again: Yoko is an uncompromising musician and writer whose grasp of the possibilities of the medium, coupled with her honest material, makes her essential listening. Her masterful production here should stifle an' doubters who might feel that Ono would not be making records today if not for John Lennon. What is evident is that John served not only as a musical influence, partner and inspiration, but that he was one fine teacher as well.

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