Rising
Yoko Ono
A 1996 collaboration with IMA, "Rising" represents Ono's most sustained engagement with alternative rock. The production is grunge-adjacent but stranger — guitars distorted to the point of blur, Ono's voice arriving not as a conventional rock instrument but as something alien to the genre and therefore more illuminating of it. Thematically "Rising" participates in Ono's ongoing feminist practice, addressing violence against women with the directness that has always marked her lyrical mode. The emotional register is not one of victimhood but of address — she speaks to perpetrators and bystanders with equal, uncomfortable clarity. Culturally it arrives at a moment when riot grrrl and alternative rock were making space for exactly this kind of confrontation. For listeners who came to Ono late, this is a useful bridge.
fast
1990s
blurred, aggressive, confrontational
Japan
Alternative rock, Art rock. Grunge-adjacent experimental. Confrontational, Defiant. Opens in blurred aggression and builds toward clear, direct accusation aimed at perpetrators and bystanders without softening.. energy 8. fast. danceability 3. valence 3. vocals: alien, confrontational, direct, raw, declarative. production: heavily distorted guitars, dense, rock, grunge-adjacent. texture: blurred, aggressive, confrontational. acousticness 1. era: 1990s. Japan. Processing rage at systemic violence, needing music that speaks to perpetrators without flinching.