From the Vaults Friday Yoko Ono Yoko OnoPlastic Ono Band 1970

The Year: 1970
The Album: Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band
Who it Influenced: Public Image Ltd., Sonic Youth, Boredoms, Deerhoof, Tune-Yards, Gang Gang Dance

It's refreshing to listen to Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band with 21st century ears. To come at the LP not as a contemporary, reared on rock'n'roll and tainted by the tabloid's demonization of Yoko Ono as the she-villain that meddled the Beatles to pieces. But as someone divorced from the scandal —and sound— of the era.

Digital technology has afforded listeners a chance to experience musical history anew, to explore things with fresh ears, to hear sound from all comers and all corners without familiar baggage and narrow-minded judgment. And, thus, has afforded listeners the opportunity to listen to Yoko Ono's debut LP with the kind of open-hearted sentiment it nearly requires.

Though it was made simultaneously alongside John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band, there's no mistaking anything herein for the singer-songwriter confessionalism of her husband's work. Here, Ono screeches, screams, growls, croaks, creaks, and cries out over free-form improvisations ranging from super-funky to utterly abstract.

And, whilst doing so, she pushes rock'n'roll —so staid, so traditionalist— into new, strange, unexpected places; setting a precedent that artists from Public Image Ltd. to Crazy Dreams Band will one day pick up.

• Full review: Yoko Ono, Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band