ALBUM REVIEWS

* Yoko Ono, “Rising,” Capitol. Ono’s first album in nearly a decade vacillates between conventional song structures and avant-garde compositions. The former range from a near-hard-core rant (“Warzone”) to a highly stylized piano lament (“Goodbye, My Love”). The latter include semi-spoken tracts as well as protracted pieces in which Ono lets loose her signature vocalizing--ultimately the deciding factor in how annoying or alluring you find this record.

New albums are rated on a scale of one star (poor), two stars (fair), three stars (good) and four stars (excellent).