John Mellencamp - Life Death Love and Freedom

Maybe Mellencamp will finally win another Grammy!

Mellencamp is my favorite solo artist. I like and own everything he has ever done, so I am probably not the most objective reviewer of his work.

Mellencamp has really come into a new realm of creativity over the past few years. This record demonstrates an amazing amount of depth, range, and musical mastery.

I liked his last album (Freedom's Road) better, but comparing the two would not be entirely fair. They are very different records all around. Freedom's Road was more "Mellencampy." This one was meant to be more solemn and flat out sad.

My favorite tracks are Longest Days and A Ride Back Home. Longest Days may well be one of the top ten best songs he has ever written. My least favorite tracks are John Cockers and County Fair.

John won his first and only Grammy back in 1982. Since then he has been nominated a dozen more times, without a win. I think Life, Death, Love & Freedom has Grammy written all over it. I will be suprized if it doesn't win one. October 19, 2008

Suicide Songs and Murder Ballads

John Cougar digs in for his deepest album since Big Daddy, and it is one of the best he's ever done. It completely lives up to the title of "Life Death Love & Freedom," focusing on the mid-life crisis of rockers who see their years increase and their country in decline. Trust me, this ain't your Mr. Happy Go Lucky. It's a lot closer to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska or James McMurtry Just Us Kids.

Helping a great deal is producer T-Bone Brunette, who once guided Elvis Costello and more recently Robert Plant and Alison Krauss into similar turf. He keeps the production austere and minimal, sometimes no more than two instruments. "Longest Days" opens the album with a hush, then builds into the Bo Diddly beat of "My Sweet Love." But more often than not, there is a bluesy melancholy that underpins the songs, with Mellancamp sounding vulnerable and assured ("This getting older ain't for cowards" he snarls at the start of "Don't Need This Body").

He also works up a fire on the two political diatribes, "Jena" and "Without a Shot." "Jena" got exposed early on after the infamous Louisiana incident, but feels heavy handed now. "Without a Shot," however, takes on complacency and wonders why we let the best of us get "used up by corruption." He almost answers that in "John Cockers," who seems to be the man Diane married 30 years ago, but took off with the kids and left Jack with a "little (pink?) house on a dusty road." These are desperate people in crummy situations, like the unfortunate man in "County Fair" or the defeated soul in "A Ride Back Home."

All is not trouble and doom here, as Mellencamp has a pair of affirmative songs. "Mean" (as in "could you please stop being so...") is a delight, easily one of his best, and the aforementioned "My Sweet Love" was added at Mellencamp's wife's insistence, as she thought the CD needed a little more cheer (and she was right). The album closes on an optimistic note, with Mellencamp rising from the realization that "the trouble with the future, it always stays the same" to the hope that those to come will find knowledge and purpose.

For those who have followed Mellencamp through the early days, hearing "Life Death Love & Freedom" will seem like a natural progression from Scarecrow and The Lonesome Jubilee, while some who only think of ""Hurts So Good" might miss out. But if you're getting up there in years and don't mind a little Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger in your musical diet, then John Mellencamp's latest will probably make your favorites for the year. October 14, 2008

Life Death and Freedom

John Mellencamp's newest CD, "Life Death and Freedom" ended up being much better than I thought it would be. Wonderful instrumentals and song variety. The more I listen to them the more they grow on me. I was afraid some of the songs would be too slow, but they weren't. Five Stars! October 10, 2008

Brief idea

I really like this CD album. The music is simple, and somewhat haunting. I can't give a track by track evaluation, because I've not had it very long. My simple idea is that John Mellencamp's music from the eighties spoke to concepts of commonality, or briefly "the common." This CD album builds within that earlier framework. The themes are very basic, or common, as the title indicates. If you are familiar with some of the ideas in this vein from his earlier music, and think they are worthwhile, you'll like this album (if you don't think a flashy sound is required). It is folksy, laid back, and articulate - which I believe is a good combination. This music can make me relax, but the lyrics are realistic and purely "Mellencamp." I'd definitely recommend this to anyone who is a fan of John and/or his folksy/protest style he's adopted. It is less pop-oriented than previous album/hit single music I alluded to. October 8, 2008

Walking in the footsteps of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan

I had never been a fan of John Mellencamp. While purchasing a book here on Amazon I notice this CD and the title got me curious. It arrived last friday after the first play I was in awe. A true poet in the likes of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan with words that ring out within these troubling times. I'm now a convert a new found respect for an artist who has been around for nearly 30 years an I ignored. Since recieving this CD 3 days ago I went and bought 4 more Melloncamp CD's waiting for them to arrive with great anticipation for words to fill the soul. October 5, 2008

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