|
|
|
|
| |
John Mellencamp - Life Death Love and Freedom
| Billboard | | Searching for a ray of lyrical light in John Mellencamp's latest treatise on the state of the world proves consuming—but largely fruitless. That, however, makes the album all the more compelling. Its unrelentingly bleak landscape, populated by plain-spoken narrators and richly detailed characters and settings, leans more on the death part of the title equation, with pointed side trips into the political climate ("Young Without Lovers," "Troubled Land," "Without a Shot" and the particularly specific "Jena") and philosophical essays like "John Cockers" and "For the Children," in which Mellencamp seems to question his own capacity for the continuing struggle. T Bone Burnett's austere and atmospheric production brings a fresh kind of texture to the performance aspects of Mellencamp's songs, and his bonus DVD mix in the new HD CODE format lives up to its promise for richer and more articulated sound quality....full text |
| | Rollingstone | | Earlier this year, John McCain used John Mellencamp's hits "Our Country" and "Pink Houses" during stump speeches, until the Democratic singer asked him to stop. It's unlikely that the Republican candidate would find anything useful for his campaign on Life, Death, Love and Freedom. Mellencamp teamed up with producer T Bone Burnett to create a whole new sound — a set of textured, atmospheric folk and country blues that adds up to one of the most compelling albums of Mellencamp's career. There's not a bright, catchy riff or fist-pumping populist anthem to be found among these brooding, low-key songs about growing old, sick, lonely and pessimistic....full text |
| | Nytimes | John Mellencamp, 56, is feeling his age and then some on “Life Death Love and Freedom.” It’s an album presented like a deathbed testament: bleak, solitary, bluesy and unbowed. In “Don’t Need This Body” Mr. Mellencamp sings, “All I got left is a headful of memories/And a thought of my upcoming death,” and that just about sums up the album.
Everywhere he looks he sees shattered expectations and looming sorrow, both in his own future and in the wider world. And where, in decades past, he would shrug off any odds against him and come up grinning, now he strives for simple perseverance. It’s a brave album in the way it sets aside all his old consolations....full text |
|
John Mellencamp lyrics |
|