The Lennon legacy

Sean Lennon: "Into The Sun" (Grand Royal). Julian Lennon: "Photograph Smile" (Music From Another Room)

John and Yoko's offspring is so determined not to fall under the shadow of his famous father, he's gone and made his own Double Fantasy with his girlfriend and muse, Yuka Honda. Meanwhile John and Cynthia's kid is dodging the Lennon legacy by writing in almost the same melodic, cascading piano style as his late dad. Both Sean and Julian Lennon have albums out this month, but the two half-brothers manage to avoid comparisons with Lennon Sr simply by being pleasant but uninteresting. Photograph Smile is Julian's comeback album, recorded in Dublin's Windmill Lane Studios, and set to restore him to former minor glories. Songs such as Cold, I Don't Wanna Know and Good To Be Lonely are well-crafted tunes, built on familiar Beatlesque chord progressions and descending scales, but sounding somewhat tame and middle-of-the-road, like Gilbert O'Sullivan on psychedelia. Sean Lennon's debut album, Into The Sun, is a charmingly naive album of breezy, easy-listening sounds and jazzy improvisations, Lennon Jr. singing in a reedy, whimsical whine which tends to grate on the senses after a few listens. The music and lyrics suggest a moderately-talented but obviously quite contented young man, and songs like Mystery Juice, Home and Two Fine Lovers paint a wispy watercolour picture of a well-adjusted, privileged youth strolling nonchalantly into an angst-free adulthood. Although Lennon is to be congratulated for not taking the straight AOR path which big half-brother Julian is still treading, Sean and Yuko's brand of happy-clappy cheese is a bit too cloying to stomach for very long.