Click HERE for Life Death LIVE and Freedom (Live Album) Reviews
Click HERE for Life Death Love and Freedom Reviews
LIFE DEATH LIVE AND FREEDOM ALBUM REVIEWS:
antimusic.com: LIVE Album Review
John Mellencamp - Life, Death, Live and Freedom
4 Stars
By Anthony Kuzminski
Once a musician attains a certain level of success the intricacy in finding the
muse isn't as effortless as it may seem. You begin to query everything you do,
spend more time writing and recording the lead single than you do the other ten
songs for the record. And if the end result does not ascertain a certain level
of success, a crisis of faith evolves. Some artists eventually realize that
trying to keep up with a rat race is a losing game and just turn inward. It's
often only when this happens that they are truly free…when they stop worrying
about pleasing share holders and suits at the big four record labels. The latter
part of the 1990's and the first part of the 2000's were a trying time for John
Mellencamp. He had a consistent string of solid records that never got the push
they deserved by the labels, but they don't hold the blame alone. During this
time, Mellencamp's shows became shorter and shorter with each tour and if one
was lucky, they would see two new songs from the latest record. His reliance on
his back catalog eventually became a liability. When I was sent to review
Mellencamp in the fall of 2007, I stopped wishing he'd do a three hour show and
dig into his catalog for some invigorating chestnuts. I just went to have fun
and I'd report about it, nothing more-nothing less. But what happened on that
fall night was an eye opening bombshell. Gone was the macho bravado that had
encompassed most of his shows for the better part of three decades and in its
place was a stoical artist who once again embodied my struggles, your struggles
and the struggles of the world at whole. It was as if I was laying eyes on an
artist I had never heard about in a small smoky club. On this particular
evening, Mellencamp played five unreleased songs. Some of these performances
have just recently been released on his new live EP Life, Death, Live & Freedom.
These live performances sent shivers not just down my spine, but into my soul as
well.
Over the course of the next year, I watched this artist who had drifted from my
consciousness build himself and his art from the ground up and reinvent himself
in ways I never thought were possible. He continued to road test material even
though it would be months before it would be released. When it was finally
released in July of 2008, Life, Death, Love and Freedom was more than a return
to form, it was the magnum opus I have been expecting from him for the better
part of his career. Make no mistake, I felt that his run of albums from 1982 to
1994 (American Fool through Dance Naked) is one of the modern eras truly
illustrious periods of creativity. What LDL&F embodies is a record that no one
possibly apart from the dearly departed Timothy White thought was possible from
the once named Johnny Cougar. The tour leading up to the album's release was
some of the most intimate shows of his career. It doesn't matter that the arenas
were larger than many of the theatres he performed in during 1997. This was all
about reestablishing a bond with his audience. Speaking to the audience in a way
he hadn't done in decades. The Mellencamp shows of the latter 90's and early
part of this decade left me cold. Mellencamp barely acknowledged the audience
and no matter how imaginative his arrangements were of classic material, he all
but ignored his recent albums. Once an artist stops trying to challenge his
audience, they stop evolving and in my opinion they may as well stop creating.
Mellencamp produced a number of fine albums during this time, but when it came
time to tour them, he fell back into routine and would perform only one or two
new songs, most often the radio hits.
The 2007-2008 tour was a soulful resurrection of a man who had faced death and
came out on the other side, creatively and physically. For the previous decade
true revelation remained shrouded in mystery with only minor hints bubbling to
the surface and for the first time in his storied career, Mellencamp decided
these performances should live on beyond those who observed those fall and
winter nights. It's stunning to realize that it took Mellencamp 33-years after
his debut record to release a live recording that was something more than a few
B-sides. The performances housed on the live EP Life, Death, Live & Freedom
feature Mellencamp at his most severe and sincere. The most astounding track of
both albums is "Longest Days"; where the narrator's careless days of
youthfulness have vanished and is now facing death head on. This is the voice of
a man with great astuteness. Mellencamp's cutting lyrics are accompanied merely
by six-strings, and even in this most naked of formats the song is an epiphany
for the ages. The unforgiving realities of the world crumble around you when you
hear the lyric, "Sometimes you get sick and you don't get better" it encompasses
you in full. The fragility of life is established by a performance just as
delicate allowing the audience to let the music sink in. It's easy to turn up
the volume and sweep people away in a dreamless state, but it's far more
meaningful when you are given something to sink your teeth into.
By living in the Midwest and not in a high income zip code on one of the coasts,
Mellencamp has seen the horrors that the recent economic climate has brought
upon the majority of this country, which he exposes on "Troubled Land". On the
line "We can turn up our collars/ And never even try" he sings with a man who is
pissed at what will be left for his children and grandchildren. He's not merely
performing, but expunging the anger from within. "If I Die Sudden" features a
lashing vocal that hits home. It's more stinging live than even on record. Andy
York's fingers glide with the soul of a lost bluesman providing punctuation to
the song allowing us to seep in and feel the desperation. The performances of
"Jena" weren't just judicious, but its delivery (by the full band) with an
awareness of its subject matter leaves you with a life lesson. In a world so
gung-ho on political correctness, performances like this are absent on most live
performances these days. "Don't Need This Body" is performed on an acoustic with
nominal instrumentation allowing the bitter lyrics to snap at you. The narrator
speaks from a journeyman's soul. "Young Without Lovers" is performed by
Mellencamp with nothing more than his acoustic; a vexing tale that invigorated
the crowd enough for them to assist Mellencamp on the chorus, but the eeriness
of the verses stick with you after the song and applause fades out. "A Ride Back
Home" features a pleading vocal from a man who is closer to the end than the
beginning. In the lyric of "My time's come and gone/ It's as simple as that",
Mellencamp brings the song to a halt to ensure the crowd could linger on every
last word. This is a man who despite all of his hopes and dreams, the world is
proving to be too troublesome for even him and is looking for guidance from
above. It's a leap of faith from the narrator to embrace a higher power at this
stage in life and as you hear the raucous applause at the end of this track, it
is evident the crowd is looking for guidance as well and Mellencamp is driving
the train of redemption. "M Sweet Love" ends the live EP with upbeat momentum.
Despite the somber tales of anguish and despondency, John Mellencamp finds a way
to fortify his audience and impart them with optimism alluding to how the
forbidden fruit of love can elevate you even at your most desperate hour. Like a
folk artist from the 1960's Mellencamp is traveling down dark corridors of the
American psyche and what differentiates him from others is that he's doing it
with conviction.
John Mellencamp was a man who lived his life to the fullest and is trying to
impart some of his wisdom with his audience. This is the record of a wise man
who has seen all life has to offer and despite all of his accolades and success
but has the common sense to know this all won't last forever. I witnessed two
shows on the 2007-2008 tour and both times Mellencamp was delivering a message
of hope and despair with a sense of down-home intimacy. It was as if I had
entered another world where he created music without the weight of his past.
Life, Death, Live and Freedom showcases Mellencamp at his most prosaic and
philosophical. This is him as his most real since Human Wheels. I watched this
man who had filled my dreams with faith, helped me cope with fear and who at
times flat out disappointed me evolve into something else. That concert tour and
this new live release (his first in his career) finds John Mellencamp
rejuvenated with the purpose of being an artist. He once was lost but now was
found…amazing grace indeed.
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Cape Code Times - Record Roundup - Life, Death, Live and Freedom
Capt. Ken's Music Musings
By Ken Capobianco
Finally, many found John Mellencamp’s last record, “Life Death Love and Freedom”
a bit too dark and murky (that was an instance when T-Bone Burnett’s production,
like his work with Sam Phillips, was too quirky for pop fans). It was a great
record about loss, mortality and the sad inevitability of aging and proved that
Mellencamp is one of the more honest and fearless rock writers. Everyone I know
said, “Too depressing, when’s the new Tom Petty coming out?”
Well, Mellencamp must have realized that some of his best songs got overlooked
so he put out an EP, “Life, Death, LIVE and Freedom,” (Hear Music) featuring
eight songs recorded live. And with this, you hear the songs from a different
point of view. Mellencamp’s voice is clear and his phrasing is different. The
vibe is not of fatigue and despair but of recognizing the song’s dark sentiments
and rising above them.
Essentially, that’s what performing live to a crowd that wants to rock and feel
good is about: transcendence. Life in America circa 2009 may be atrocious. But
we are here together, alive, so let’s stare down death with the demons on our
back, acknowledge our limitations, and refuse to blink.
That’s what you get here. Terrific band performances of songs like “Young
Without Lovers,” “A Ride Back Home,” the terrific “Jena” (sounds like a
completely different song) and the soulful “My Sweet Love.” Mellencamp's always
been one of our best live performers and he breathes new life into these songs
on this. It comes out on June 23.
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BellaOnline.com: LIVE Album Review
I’ve never been a fan of “live” albums and I know I’m not the only one.
Difficult to articulate why though – I don’t think I’m so rigid that I need to
hear the same song the same way with no variation every time so it’s not that
and certainly, I love the whole concert experience thing even if I wasn’t
actually present when they recorded. So why the aversion? Maybe it’s because the
choice of songs is often less than inspiring (don’t even get me started on David
Bowie’s Stage album) or the fact that some artists’ disappoint when removed from
the sterility of a studio setting. It’s neither a secret nor a disrespect to
note that some vocalists very clearly benefit from a bit of the – shall we say –
auditory makeover that happens behind the scenes. And of course all that is
fine, assumed even. But just to be clear John Mellencamp does not need help.
Both his voice and his latest live offering Life Death Live and Freedom which
was recorded with “no overdubs or studio enhancements of any kind” (thus quoth
the liner notes) are very welcome to grace my Bose at any time.
If you are already a John Mellencamp fan – like me – you have most likely
already purchased Life Death Love and Freedom - note not LIVE – when it was
released and if you did, you will not find a lot of surprises here since many,
although not all of the songs resurface here as live versions. So why the heck
am I now extolling the value of such a similar cd of the same songs? Because
John Mellencamp has a superb voice live – he’s passionate, earnest and making
himself vulnerable - in a way that's so intimate, you can tell he doesn't do so
easily and the listener feels flattered to be included - and that raises this
album to the level of pure poetry. Mellencamp's intellectual side has frequently
been dumbed down for some reason or obscured altogether (perhaps due to the
rural-working-man persona he has sometimes cultivated) but the reality is that
these songs – particularly on this record and particularly when sung live – are
soul rending, poignant and thought provoking. The lyrics especially are swollen
with angst, introspection and a refreshing lack of top dressing. With titles
like Don’t Need This Body and If I Die Sudden Mellencamp serves up an unsettling
midlife cocktail that many will find troubling to digest; however, John is not
afraid to herald an entire series of both personal and social wake-up calls to
the listener –both individually and as a nation. Also and not just as an aside
the very excellent band members (Andy York: guitars, background vocals; Mike
Wanchic: guitars, background vocals; Troye Kinnett: Keyboards, background
vocals; the wonderful Miriam Sturm on violin; John Gunnell on bass and Dane
Clark, percussion) are basically flawless and conform to his every nuance
without hesitation.
The fact that he had a heart attack a few years back has no doubt played a part
in John’s change of style and although this album has been dubbed maudlin by
some, to do so, is to miss the point altogether: these are mature songs
intentionally written not about the time worn topic of love going well – or
badly – but rather, about life. It’s the classic blues credo of using music as a
way through. Listen up. Oh and if you didn’t buy the first record? I think this
is the better choice – the live performance is just so much more authentic.
Click on the samples below to listen – you can even compare!
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AntiMusic.com: Condensed Soup LIVE Album Review
John Mellencamp - Life Death Live Freedom - 4 stars
In 2007, John Mellencamp hit the road with a batch of new songs that eventually landed on last year's Life Death Love Freedom. This short live record is a swift kick to the gut. Proof that Mellencamp knows what he is doing by taking the music straight to the people. Don't expect rousing live versions of the hits, this is strictly from the last record, and strictly heavy duty emotion.
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The Virginian-Pilot: Life Death LIVE and Freedom Review
Saturday, August 7, 2009
With “Life, Death, Live and Freedom,” (Hear Music) John Mellencamp is giving
his fans a snapshot of the history of his 2008 release “Life, Death, Love and
Freedom.”
Before the tracks were released on that CD, Mellencamp road-tested the songs on
tour to thousands of fresh ears. In the midst of “Pink Houses” and “Jack and
Diane” he would mix in totally unknown songs to test the waters with the
audience. What you hear on this disc are untouched soundboard recordings from
those shows.
Musically, the eight songs on “Life, Death, Live and Freedom” are introspective.
They range from the politically charged “Jena,” written about the racially
volatile Louisiana town of the same name, to “Longest Days” in which Mellencamp
revisits time spent with his late grandmother. All of the songs are stark and
organic, hitting the audience with unfamiliarity, which in turn allows them to
deliver their message untouched by publicity.
That is what this CD is about.
– Mike Doyle
Tracks to download “Jena,” “Don’t Need This Body”
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GoodSound.com: Life Death LIVE and Freedom Review
Saturday, August 1, 2009 - by Joseph Taylor
John Mellencamp's Life Death Love and Freedom was a career-defining record
from a songwriter and singer whose shrewd commercial instincts seem to have kept
him from having the hip "Americana" tag hung on him. But with producer T. Bone
Burnett's help, Life Death Love and Freedom brought Mellencamp's talents into
their greatest focus since 1993's Human Wheels, and the result was a triumph.
Best of all, the disc, which was full of warmth and atmosphere, sounded
terrific. If the drums on "My Sweet Love" were mixed a little forward, it was a
conscious effort to create the right feel for the song, and it worked.
While Burnett helped frame Mellencamp's songs, it was the songs themselves that
showed the singer's renewed purpose and talent. By the time the album was
released in 2008, Mellencamp had already been playing them live during a
six-month North American tour, and eight of those live versions are featured on
his new release, Life Death Live and Freedom. Live recordings let us hear how
musicians redefine their material for an audience without studio techniques. And
the members of Mellencamp's touring band, who played on Life Death Love and
Freedom, skillfully bring his songs to the stage.
The studio version of "My Sweet Love" opens with Mellencamp and Karen Fairchild
singing the opening line of the song a capella. On the live version, the drums
set the pace and guitarist Mike Wanchic (who co-produced the live disc) plays a
guitar lick patterned after Johnny Cash's guitarist, Luther Perkins. Some
multi-tracked guitar lines are missing (though not many, since Burnett
maintained an organic feel for the disc), but Andy York and Wanchic play off
each other to recreate the original recording. The original recording of "If I
Die Sudden" is spare and dark, but the live version is more driving and the
drums play a prominent role. Mellencamp sings the tune in a higher register, and
he sounds more defiant than in the original. He sings "Young Without Lovers" and
"A Ride Back Home" with just an acoustic guitar, a marked contrast to the more
fleshed-out arrangements of the studio album.
Life Death Live and Freedom was recorded directly through the soundboard with no
overdubs. The sound conveys the sports-arena expansiveness of the venues, but
you can still hear the details. The guitars snarl, the snare drum snaps hard,
the bass thumps, and Mellencamp's voice is up front and sharply focused. Perhaps
most impressive is how clear and simple the acoustic songs are presented.
Mellencamp trusts his audience to accept these straightforward interpretations,
and they reward him with quiet attention.
Life Death Live and Freedom shows a musician at the top of his powers, confident
in himself and his audience. It's available as a single disc for those who
already own Life Death Love and Freedom, or you can buy them bundled as a deluxe
edition.
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Billboard Magazine: Life Death LIVE and Freedom Review
Saturday, July 18, 2009 - By Ken Tucker
Recorded live in 2008, "Life Death Live and Freedom" is a companion piece to
John Mellencamp's acclaimed "Life Death Love and Freedom." That said, "Live"
stands on its own. The eight-song album is an honest-to-goodness testament to
Mellencamp's longevity, artistry and ability to connect with his audience. When
"Live" was being recorded, the tunes were new to the audience, which responds
enthusiastically nonetheless. "Longest Days," with its stripped-down acoustic
guitar and trademark Mellencamp growl, is raw and real. In fact, the album
wasn't overdubbed or tweaked in any way—something exceedingly rare these days
when it comes to so-called "live" sets. But we wouldn't expect any less from
Mellencamp. Other highlights include the driving "If I Die Sudden," "Troubled
Land," "Don't Need This Body" and "Young Without Lovers," which turns into a
crowd singalong.
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Lehigh Valley/Allentown, PA The Morning Call: Life Death LIVE and Freedom Review
Friday, July 10, 2009 - by John Moser
ROOTS ROCK | It was easy in the mid-1980s to think of John Mellencamp as a poor man’s Bruce Springsteen, singing catchy but not terribly original populist roots rock.
But more than 20 years later, Mellencamp shows on his stunningly good new disc “Life Death LIVE and Freedom” and its companion piece, last year’s “Life Death Love and Freedom,” that he’s far better than we ever gave him credit for.
While it may seem he’s tapped into an easy subject – we baby boomers certainly are obsessed with death, or avoiding it – the truth is that Mellencamp is simply being painfully honest, facing his own demons, which just happen to be the same we’re all facing.
And by doing so he’s creating far more interesting music than not only Springsteen, but the type of music Bob Dylan should be doing.
“Life Death LIVE and Freedom” is a collection of eight songs from the studio album recorded as they were road tested before that record’s release. The difference is that here, the songs sound as if Mellencamp is not just singing them, but living them. His voice is gruff, imperfect and, well, older.
Throughout the disc, Mellencamp is facing death – never moreso than on the opening “If I Die Sudden,” a blues-rooted song with a gunslinger groove that lets you know he’s approaching the grim reaper defiant and gutsy as ever. The song’s authenticity rings loudly when you consider the 57-year-old Mellencamp’s 1994 heart attack.
Also startlingly honest is “Don’t Need This Body,” another bluesy rocker in which he acknowledges his physical limitations (“worn out and washed up for sure”), and frankly tells the listener it’s a struggle to age (“This getting’ older/Hell, it ain’t for cowards”).
But perhaps the song that rings most true is “Longest Days,” on which he addresses not only his position in life, but in his career, as well. “All I got here/Is a rear view mirror/Reflections of where I've been/So you tell yourself/I'll be back up on top some day/But you know there's nothing/Waiting up there for you anyway.” That’s a difficult statement for anyone.
Mellencamp doesn’t only talk about his own woes, but those of the nation, as well, in “Troubled Land” – and boils it down only as someone with years of living could: “We need peace in this troubled land.”
The disc is admittedly depressing, but so frequently, if we’re honest, is life. And Mellencamp at least offers an uplifting turn on the closing “My Sweet Love,” extolling love’s ability to grow stronger as we grow weaker and lift up life when all else is lost.
Each and every song on this disc is a revelation. If, as this generation ages, we still have a musical voice, on this disc it’s John Mellencamp’s.
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Toronto Sun Paper Life Death LIVE and Freedom Review
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Roots-Rock - Sun Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5
Mellencamp never plays by the rules. On his 2008 tour, he played several songs
from his magnificently grim Life, Death, Love and Freedom CD before it was
released. Now, he's compiled eight of them (three of which were recorded at his
Toronto and Red Deer shows) into this superbly stark live set -- the first
concert disc of his 30-year career. We'd ask for more, but why bother?
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Nashville City Paper Life Death LIVE and Freedom Review
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
By Ron Wynn
John Mellencamp - Life Death Live and Freedom - (Hear Music)
While John Mellencamp was thrilling and impressive during the studio version of the Life Death Love and Freedom CD, he’s taken things to even greater heights vocally and emotionally on these live versions of songs culled from concerts done during last year’s tours.
Whether it’s “Troubled Land,” “Jena,” “My Sweet Love,” or “Don’t Need This Body,” you hear Mellencamp singing without reserve or inhibition, at times powering through the melody and turning the lyrics into vibrant exhortations, then suddenly switching the mood and tempo back down before reviving things again.
Backed by a fine six-piece unit whose two guitars, keyboards, violin, bass and percussion created fierce, percolating backgrounds, Mellencamp provided audiences with an intensity and soul not obtainable in a sterile studio environment.
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Louisville Courier Journal Life Death LIVE and Freedom Review
Friday, July 3, 2009
By Jeffrey Lee Puckett
John Mellencamp is getting the third-wheel treatment on this summer tour with
Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. But when the infield dust settles Wednesday at
Louisville Slugger Field, Mellencamp will be the last man standing.
Advertisement
He's a compelling performer and total pro who paces his show like a perfect mix
tape, and even the most hard-core Dylan fan won't resist "Jack & Diane."
Mellencamp has always thrived on stage, but this is his first live album, and
since it repeats the same eight songs on last year's acoustic "Life, Death, Love
and Freedom," it's only $8.
Mellencamp recasts half of that album as rock 'n' roll and keeps the other half
acoustic. The ruminations on growing old and living in a struggling America turn
urgent and more immediate with a band. "My Sweet Love" is more fun, "If I Die
Sudden" more scary, and all of it's more vibrant.
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LIFE DEATH LOVE AND FREEDOM ALBUM REVIEWS:
Number 18. 'Life, Death, Love & Freedom' (2008)
'Life, Love, Death and Freedom' is one of John Mellencamp's best albums…period. Its themes, lyrics and arrangements cut right through your soul. Even at fourteen-songs, Mellencamp has crafted a lean and reflective album with some of his most ingenuous and illuminating lyrics ever committed to tape. More importantly, he's found a way to properly present them thanks to the guided hand of producer T-Bone Burnett. The poignancy of his lyrics hasn't been this compelling in eons. One listen to "Longest Days" will leave you emotionally drained as his reedy voice reveals layers and elevates what is already magnificent poetry to art that is relevant to the here and now. These songs ring true to Mellencamp's ideologies and the themes in his larger body of work. T Bone Burnett's subtle production pulls you in and doesn't let go. The entire album is bursting with divine lyrics which find a common ground of redemption. There's a lot of life in these songs yet one can still see the same determination in Mellencamp from a quarter of a century back, he's still full of piss and vinegar.
Rolling Stone - Life, Death, Love and Freedom 4 out of 5 Stars
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.
Burnett brings a fuzzy moodiness to the gospel hymn "If I Die Sudden" and the
Springsteen-like "Don't Need This Body," both underpinned by distorted guitars
and reverb-heavy leads. Politically motivated songs like "Jena," about the
racially charged Jena 6 trial in Louisiana, and "Young Without Lovers," a more
general plea for tolerance, sometimes strain to deliver a Big Message, with
lines like "Let the people have the right to be different." But Mellencamp
excels at the simple tunes: the twangy "My Sweet Love," kick-started by a big Bo
Diddley beat and sweetened with female harmonies, and "A Ride Back Home," his
desperate plea to Jesus over spare, ragged guitars. Life's dark undertones may
not make for easy listening, but Mellencamp's raspy drawl has only gotten more
soulful with age.
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New York Times
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.
His voice is gruff and weary, with a craggy matter-of-factness replacing his old
swagger. The album was produced by T Bone Burnett, and it shares the rootsy,
spooked tone of Mr. Burnett’s 2007 production “Raising Sand” by Robert Plant and
Alison Krauss. This album’s most upbeat track, “My Sweet Love,” is rockabilly
heard from afar, a love song with a queasy undertow: “It sure would feel good to
feel good again,” Mr. Mellencamp sings.
In the new songs he trades his familiar brawny rock for sparser settings, like
the bluesy riff and echoes of “If I Die Sudden” and the Celtic-Appalachian
modality of “Young Without Lovers.” Mr. Burnett disassembles Mr. Mellencamp’s
usual sound, placing his own down-home guitar within the band and, for nearly
half the album, devising arrangements without drums. Mr. Mellencamp can still
come up with blunt, righteous choruses — like those in “Jena,” a song about
racial confrontation in a Louisiana town — but on this CD he underplays them, as
if he’s all too aware of every limitation.
Mr. Mellencamp’s tour is due Thursday at the Jones Beach Theater in Wantagh,
N.Y., and Friday at the PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, N.J. JON PARELES
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Top 10 must-have CDs by Steve Guttenberg
What follows is a list of my favorite sounding CDs of late, in no particular order. My preference is for realistic-sounding recordings, recordings that allow the band to sound "live." And sure, I like lots of recordings that are heavily processed, but I wouldn't by any stretch use them to "test" the naturalness of a speaker.
Mellencamp digs deep - John Mellencamp, "Life Death Love And Freedom"
Another T-Bone Burnett production, with Mellencamp in a stripped-down, contemporary blues mode. Tunes alternate between sweet unplugged and rough-hewn electric grit. But it's a very vivid sound, so Mellencamp and company sound like there right there in your room.
Other titles on his list (click here to read his full thoughts on each online part 1 | part 2)
Elvis Costello, "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane"
Mark Olson & Gary Louris, "Ready For The Flood"
Dan Auerbach, "Keep It Hid"
Jen Chapin, ReVisions: Songs of Stevie Wonder
Savage Aural Hotbed, "Wreckquiem"
Rosanne Cash, "10 Song Demo"
Gerald Clayton, "Two-Shade"
Bob Brozman, "Post-Industrial Blues"
Dick Hyman, "Thinking About Bix
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New York Daily News - John Mellencamp isn't afraid to face death
By Jim Farber - Friday, July 11th 2008, 4:00 AM
John Mellencamp isn't afraid to face death in his bold and bluesy new CD.
John Mellencamp has mortality on his mind of late. He may have titled his new CD, "Life, Death, Love and Freedom," but it's the second word that gets the most emphasis, and draws the most alarm.
"Just put me in a pine box/six feet underground," Mellencamp brays in "If I Die Sudden." "Don't be callin' no minister/I don't need one around."
In "Don't Need This Body," he talks flagrantly about his "upcoming death," and proclaims "this getting older ain't for cowards," while in the album's first track, he sings "Life is short/even in its longest days."
It's not exactly bouncy summer concert fare. But that hasn't stopped Mellencamp from featuring a clutch of these tough-minded new songs on his current, otherwise hit-driven tour, which parks at the PNC Bank Arts Center tonight.
"I'm not so sure that one should personalize this album," Mellencamp wrote to the News in an e-mail. "But definitely at age 56, the youthful bravado that one once carried has been replaced by a more mature understanding or lack of understanding of one's life."
Besides, it's not like Mellencamp hasn't come close to this road before. In 2003, he put out a rattling blues CD, "Trouble No More," that had the backwoods yowl and morbid truth of the form's earliest expressions. The disk didn't sell, but it scored high creatively. Mellencamp inched back toward the mainstream with his follow-up CD, "Freedom Road," even going to the extreme of selling one song ("Our Country") to a car commercial, which earned howls of outrage from some.
As if in reaction, the new CD (out Tuesday) swings back to the blues, but this time in an even more bold and personal way. Where "Trouble No More" found the heartland rocker covering the likes of Willie Dixon and Robert Johnson, "Life, Death ..." features wholly original takes on blues and folk. It boasts the ideal producer for the task: T-Bone Burnett, the premier roots dial-twister of our time. He has overseen everything from the "O Brother" soundtrack to the recent hit collaboration between Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
For Mellencamp's CD, Burnett helped craft a raw and splintery sound that makes full use of the singer's deepening vocal expression. He made sure the listener can savor every bit of it by releasing the album as a two-disk set, with one part a DVD that has a sound identical to the original master tapes. It's the first music released in this form.
The results straddle the harrowing and the beautiful. The melody of the ballad "Longest Days" may be Mellencamp's most caring, while a song like "If I Die Sudden" revels in his rougher blues rasp.
The CD isn't entirely devoted to dirges. Several peaks of hope poke through. But its power comes in its unflinching will to stare into the void - to face fear with both a cower and a sneer.
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Billboard Magazine: Life, Death, Love and Freedom Review
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.—Gary Graff
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Bloomington Herald-Times: More 'Life' than 'Death'
By Mike Leonard -
July 13, 2008
A writer previewing John Mellencamp’s recently-launched summer tour
sarcastically noted that his upcoming album, “Life, Death, Love and Freedom,”
sounded like quite a bit less than a rollicking good time.
Rolling Stone titled its review, “American Gothic” and, despite the stellar four
stars (out of four) rating, the magazine described the music as “dark.”
And in another, otherwise positive review, New York Times reviewer Jon Pareles
wrote: “It’s an album presented like a deathbed testament: bleak, solitary,
bluesy and unbowed.”
All of the above may well be true but it all misses the overall effect. “Life,
Death, Love and Freedom” resonates with life and meaning and a richness without
equal in the 56-year-old Hall of Famer’s career. Its closest musical relative
might be “Trouble No More,” but it’s almost as if Mellencamp assimilated the
rootsy, blues vibe from that collection of cover tunes, processed it, and
created a deeply human amalgam of country blues and folk that eschews the
anthems and arena rock he does so well and presents yet another component to the
ever-evolving Bloomington-based singer songwriter.
Working with acclaimed producer T Bone Burnett (“Oh Brother, Where Art Thou,”
“Raising Sand” by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss), Mellencamp has created a
masterpiece of sorts. As he said many times in the months leading up to the
album’s July 15 release: “You’ve never heard an album that sounds like this.”
That’s “no brag, just fact.” You hear the bright notes and chords from acoustic
guitars as well as the deep, resonant bass. Electric guitars moan and plead and
groan with perfect amounts of reverberation and fuzz. Many songs simply end with
the acoustic sustain of a sweet-sounding guitar — as if you have your ear up to
the sound hole, listening to that last note fade away. And Troy Kinnett’s organ
and melodica work add just enough color and warmth to make the album sound so
much more than “stripped down,” another descriptor that is both accurate but
inadequate.
Just like the label, dark.
With the exception of the bouncy, Buddy Holly-like radio hit, “My Sweet Love,”
the album primarily explores the doubt and despair endemic to the human
condition.
“Longest Days” is wise in its rumination that “Life is short, even in its
longest days.” “If I Die Sudden” sounds like a classic old blues song in which
an iconoclastic, defiant loner sings: “Just put me in a pine box, Six feet
underground, Don’t be callin’ no minister, I don’t need one around.”
Several tracks later, we hear Mellencamp sing, “Hey, Jesus, can you give me a
ride back home?”
The contrasts are consistent with the ebb and flow of human emotion and the
questions sentient beings wrestle with in life. Musically, however, the album is
delightfully consistent in that small things are writ large.
It’s no surprise that Mellencamp and Burnett would achieve such a satisfying
equilibrium, given Mellencamp’s ear and Burnett’s studio expertise. For those
equipped with a home theater system or other means of playing a DVD through a
quality sound system, “Life, Death, Love and Freedom” includes both a standard
CD and a DVD that employs Burnett’s proprietary Code audio, which ups the ante
from 16 bit, 44.1 kilohertz sound to a 24 bit, 96K audio experience that has
been likened to what musicians hear in the recording studio.
The listener is not cheated by the CD, however. It’s the same format as
everything else on the market, and few people know how to squeeze the most out
of CD sound better than Burnett. The DVD is simply a delightful bonus — warm and
rich like a fine old vinyl album, with no pops, scratches or other
imperfections.
The album also is Mellencamp’s first on the Hear Music label, which was launched
by the Starbucks coffeehouse chain and distributed by Concord Music. Hear has
quickly established an impressive stable of artists, including, currently, Sonic
Youth, Coldplay, Jakob Dylan, Alanis Morissette and a John Coltrane re-release.
Mellencamp’s current tour, with opening act Lucinda Williams, runs through
Chicago on July 22 (Charter One Pavilion) and Cincinnati on July 23 (Riverbend
Music Center) before several dates out west. Mellencamp’s first tour of
Australia and New Zealand will take place in November through early December
with Sheryl Crow opening.
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St. Petersburg Times - A-
By Sean Daly, Times Pop Music Critic
In print: Sunday, July 27, 2008
Album: Life Death Love and Freedom (Hear)
In stores: Now
Why we care: Much like the mystic juju he conjured up for Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand, voodoo priest/super-producer T Bone Burnett slathers Mellencamp's new album in the same Southern Gothic swamp stank.
Why we like it: The 14-tracker grooves with resonator geetars, rattling bones and things that go bump in the subconscious. Mellencamp sings about kids getting stabbed at county fairs, politicians spiking the Kool-Aid, old men praying for death. But Burnett often saves John from himself, summoning a dead man's party to go with the so-serious words.
Reminds us of: Jack and Diane as groom and corpse bride.
Download this: My Sweet Love
Grade: A-
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Virginian-Pilot/Hampton Roads - Go Get It Now
John Mellencamp delivers a message that many probably don't want to hear, but he's been doing that his entire 30-plus-year career.
The messages in this 14-track disc are often simple, mixed with the perfectly suited music that anchors them, from "life is short, even in its longest days" to "why do so many suffer; oppressed to the end of time; why does freedom move so slowly, unable to speak its mind." Acoustic melodies, mixed with beautiful harmonies with Karen Fairchild, are shown on songs such as "My Sweet Love."
For those who have loved Mellencamp since he was singing about needing a lover who didn't drive him crazy, his latest compilation should touch any generation. Sure, the Indiana rocker mixes words of pessimism, like being stabbed to death in "County Fair" by someone who "I can't remember who he was," but he also offers hope with his raspy, lingering voice in "A Brand New Song."
Thanks for these new songs, John. They'll resonate for a long time.
- Toni Guagenti, The Pilot
Rating: Go get it now
Tracks to download: "Longest Days," "My Sweet Love," "Don't Need This Body"
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Indianapolis Star - Mellencamp's heavy mood isn't without humor
By David Lindquist -
July 15, 2008
Don’t look to “Life, Death, Love and Freedom” to be the feel-good hit of the summer.
Of the four items listed within the title of John Mellencamp’s album, which arrives in stores today, death overwhelms all competing topics on the 14-song collection produced by mood-music specialist T-Bone Burnett.
The sonic textures are unplugged and haunted, suggestive of Bob Dylan’s 1997 meditation on mortality, “Time Out of Mind,” and Mellencamp’s own roots-blues cover album, 2003’s “Trouble No More.”
But Indiana’s long-running rock star showcases a sense of melody and a sense of humor on “Life, Death, Love and Freedom” not always evident on those previous works.
Hear Mellencamp whistle through the graveyard on “Don’t Need This Body,” where he concludes, “I loved and I fought with many, and the people, they loved me just the same.”
That sounds about right for the 56-year-old who grew up in small-town Seymour, became rich and famous all across North America and settled down in Monroe and Brown counties.
Mellencamp bristles at the notion his songs are autobiographical, but his story appears to be revealed on several of these new tunes.
“You tell yourself, ‘I’ll be back on top someday,’ but you know there’s nothing waiting up there for you anyway,” he sings during “Longest Days,” the album’s emotionally heavy opening track.
“This life’s been right to me,” he admits during “If I Die Sudden.” “I got a whole bunch more than I deserved, and now I will be free.”
It’s logical to break down the album’s title into a pair of equations: Life equals love, and death equals freedom.
The second sentiment isn’t the sunniest, but there’s no depression in heaven, as the Carter Family famously sang in the 1930s.
Mellencamp could have trimmed as many as four exit-themed numbers to lighten the mood without diminishing the album’s thematic spirit. Eventually, he shuffles from resignation to relief when closing with the uplifting duo “For the Children” and “A Brand New Song.”
Burnett’s distinctive talents are heard on current single “My Sweet Love,” a rockabilly romp that pairs Mellencamp with Little Big Town vocalist Karen Fairchild. “My Sweet Love” rambles as a proud cousin to “Gone Gone Gone,” the recent Burnett-produced hit sung by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss.
Elsewhere, Burnett adds slow-burn electric guitar at the edges of several songs, and his high-definition CODE format truly amazes when the instruments and voices of “Young Without Lovers” separate to 3-D effect.
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St. Louis Suburban Journals
Mellencamp offers brutally honest assessment of 'Life'
By Sara Berry Sunday, July 27, 2008 7:25 AM CDT
After nearly 25 years of making straightforward, rootsy rock music, John Mellencamp has become an American icon, right up there with apple pie and Little League baseball.
Through songs about working-class young people like "Jack and Diane" and ardent support for the Farm-Aid charity, Mellencamp has come to symbolize traditional Heartland values: loyalty, hard work and love of country.
Perhaps his best-known hit, 2007's "Our Country," was the centerpiece of a massive marketing campaign for Chevy trucks. It simply doesn't get much more American than that.His latest album, "Life, Death, Love and Freedom," follows in much the same vein as his previous work, telling the stories of average Americans and the challenging times that all of us presently face. Economic struggles, security threats, religious doubts, social injustice - these themes provide the serious, even bleak, landscape on which the album is built.
Musically, the album mirrors its subject matter. Mellencamp has stripped these 14 tracks down to their most basic level, shunning pretty instrumental flourishes and excessive production.
The songs call to mind those classic black-and-white photos of the Dust Bowl in the early 20th century: stark, even depressing, yet hauntingly beautiful in their honesty.
These songs provide snapshots of individuals engaged in a common search for redemption, both in secular and spiritual circles.
On "A Ride Back Home," the main character has given up on life but lacks the courage to end his. Instead, he pleads for divine intervention: "Hey Jesus this world is too troublesome for me/ I try to fight off all these devils but I'm just too weak . . . Hey Jesus can you get me a ride back home?"
The dirge-like "Without a Shot" decries the self-centered corruption that Mellencamp sees taking over the nation - the belief that "equality for all is just a waste of our time" and the hypocrisy of "handing out verses of Scripture like we wrote it down ourselves." Over the ominous notes of organ and mandolin, he laments, "We sell each other down the road till there's nothing left to sell."
Not surprisingly, "Jena" addresses the racism that continues to thrive in America, decades after the triumphs of the civil rights movement. Mellencamp doesn't dwell on the specifics of the recent incident at a small-town high school in Louisiana, but he cuts to the core of the matter with the line, "Jena, take your nooses down." Sharp-edged electric guitar adds additional bite to the lyrics' verbal condemnation.
"Life, Death, Love and Freedom" won't win any nominations for feel-good album of the year, and the ad men at Chevy will have to look elsewhere for their next fist-pumping-patriotic TV commercial. But this record succeeds on a different level, one that transcends CD sales or radio play.
These songs force listeners to think and to take an honest assessment of their assumptions about themselves, each other and the world we live in. Those qualities make Mellencamp more than just a musician, but a true artist as well.
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Blurt
Magazine - 8 out of 10 Stars
by Jake Cline
An album titled Life Death Love and Freedom should be approached with much
trepidation, doubly so if said album is by John Mellencamp, who gave up singing
little ditties about young, Heartland lovers in favor of large, flag-waving
jingles about Chevy trucks. So it’s no great surprise to discover how soberly
Mellencamp tackles the big issues raised in the album’s title. (Presumably, he
thought Life Death Love Freedom and Taxes would be pushing it.) It is, however,
something of a mild shock to find how good this album actually is.
Produced by the ubiquitous T Bone Burnett, the disc is decidedly low-key, with
understated guitars and organs complementing the singer’s morbid, reflective
lyrics. “Life is short even in its longest days,” Mellencamp intones, and he
ain’t kidding. When he’s not staring down the Reaper, Mellencamp proves he’s
still a man of the people, as on the topical “Jena” and the jaded but rewarding
“My Sweet Love.”
Standout Tracks: “My Sweet Love,” “If I Die Sudden”
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The Associated Press Music Review: John Mellencamp's dark new CD
By MICHAEL McCALL, For The
Associated Press
Mon Jul 14, 4:42 PM ET
Induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame apparently incited John Mellencamp
to obsess on mortality. He responds with "Life, Death, Love and Freedom," the
most somber album of his 32-year career, offering bass-heavy, rumbling blues and
dark-hued acoustic stomps that explore death, relationships and the dark clouds
hovering over such ongoing concerns as liberty, equality and peaceful
coexistence.
Working for the first time with veteran producer T Bone Burnett, Mellencamp
moves away from the anthemic roots-rock and Midwestern soul music he's built his
reputation on. Burnett envelops him in the same misty, reverberating twang used
so well on Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' "Raising Sand." But Mellencamp uses
that sound for an album of midnight ramblings that are less playful and more
ominous.
The core songs address death directly: "Sometimes you get sick, and you don't
get better," he sings in the opening "Longest Days." "If I Die Sudden" features
lyrics as blunt as its title, while "A Ride Back Home" asks Jesus to deliver him
once he's gone. Another song, "Don't Need This Body," starts with "This getting
older ain't for cowards," then bemoans that he and his friends won't be around
much longer.
Not everything is so bleak: "A Brand New Song" acknowledges life's difficulties
while saying we all must work to find he best in ourselves and others, while
"For The Children" is a prayer for a future of less suffering and more humanity
— after he's gone, of course.
CHECK THIS OUT: "My Sweet Love," the album's one true upbeat tune, is a paean to
the enduring spirit and connection to his wife, photographer and model Elaine
Mellencamp, set to a Buddy Holly beat and sung as a duet with Karen Fairchild of
Little Big Town.
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Orlando Sentinel - 5 out of 5 Stars
Jim Abbott | Sentinel Music Critic - July 13, 2008
John Mellencamp is a new member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, but the singer-songwriter has always possessed a depth that goes beyond rock clichés.
At its core, Life Death Love and Freedom isn't a rock album, no matter how much the frisky "My Sweet Love" shimmies with Buddy Holly style. There's an understated intensity in T Bone Burnett's production that's reminiscent of Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska in the solitary "Longest Days."
At other points, Mellencamp enlists evocative percussion and an assortment of musical toys -- melodica, resonator guitars, accordion -- to add flesh to the album's acoustic structure. As a vocalist, his tenor has aged into a weathered, expressive instrument that wraps itself around plaintive ballads such as "Young Without Lovers" and "John Cockers" like a modern-day bluesman.
On the pseudo-spiritual "Don't Need This Body," Mellencamp sounds as if he's channeling Woody Guthrie, if the folk icon had been accompanied by a haunting distorted guitar. The song doesn't rock, but it's one for the ages.
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USA Today 3.5 out
of 5 Stars
* * * 1/2 -- Life in the
serious lane
Despite the expansive title, there’s no room for Jack and Diane, barn-burning
dance tunes or Zippo-raising heartland anthems on this dead-serious Life force,
one of Mellencamp’s finest efforts to date. Produced by T Bone Burnett, who
helped develop its high-definition CODE audio technology, the album winds down a
dark, rootsy path of folk, country and haunting blues borrowed from Robert
Johnson. In a twangy rasp, Mellencamp reflects with pessimism and regret, but
he’s full of fire and purpose, whether offering scrappy prayer A Ride Back Home,
brooding hymn If I Die Sudden or the politically charged Jena, based on racial
friction sparked by a noose draped from a tree in Louisiana. This time,
Mellencamp’s pink houses come with foreclosure signs. — Edna Gundersen
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Boston Globe - In a serious state of mind
July 15, 2008
ESSENTIAL "A Ride Back Home"
Fresh from induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the plainspoken poet
of the heartland continues to prove why he deserves that honor. Whether it's an
impeccable turn of phrase or mesmerizing melody, Mellencamp finds plenty of
inspiration on this glorious and haunting effort, produced with typically
idiosyncratic skill by T Bone Burnett.
Eschewing any concept of "radio ready" and singing with a gruff immediacy,
Mellencamp tackles all of the titular concepts on this folk- and blues-based
material with a sense of liberation that is keenly palpable. Death, especially,
is a popular topic. Mellencamp, 56, approaches it with calm contemplation on the
meditative "Longest Days." He prepares for it with curmudgeonly attitude and
gratitude on the dark, rumbling "If I Die Sudden" and even longs for it on "A
Ride Back Home," in which Jesus serves as kind of a bouncer and celestial taxi
service to the pearly gates.
Mostly written in two weeks and recorded in about the same amount of time, these
vivid stories tell of people in various stages of living and dying who have
learned a thing or two worth passing on. The album also comes with a DVD
version, the first release in a new high-quality audio format called CODE,
created by Burnett and a team of engineers. It indeed sounds warmer and more
present than its CD counterpart. [Sarah Rodman]
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Philadelphia Daily News - Mellencamp Takes On The Great Beyond
July 15, 2008 -
By JONATHAN TAKIFF
Reflective sets by seasoned talents John Mellencamp and Randy Travis lead the
pack of music CD and DVD releases today.
TIME PASSAGES: Sure seems like John Mellencamp has been listening to and
connecting with old acoustic blues vets - the Rev. Gary Davis and Sonny Terry
and Brownie McGhee. Decades before their demise, those musicians were obsessed
with songs about checking out and the great beyond.
But it wasn't all "Death Don't Have No Mercy" kinda stuff. Often, death was
envisioned (in gospel terms) as welcome relief from the hardscrabble life they'd
known.
Now Mellencamp, who survived a heart attack in his early 40s (1994) is
connecting the dots between here and there in a similarly mixed-blessings
fashion on "Life Death Love and Freedom" (Hear Music, A-). (For more Mellencamp,
see interview on Page 46.)
The set was produced in quasi-old-time-blues fashion by T-Bone Burnett, with
acoustic guitars primary, plus spikes of electricity (shimmering guitar strings,
warm organ fills) and rock-style percussion to update the sound.
If you're a fan of Burnett's recent work with Robert Plant and Alison Krauss on
"Raising Sand," you're already on the right wavelength for this stuff.
Mellencamp even pairs in similar fashion with Karen Fairchild on originals like
"Don't Need This Body" and "A Ride Back Home," a surprisingly sweet,
soft-rollicking shout-out to Jesus to help "get me in the door."
Not that he wants to hasten his demise. "Mean" puts down a bleak soul who's
always "complaining about this life all the time, surely something good here as
the world spins by." Mellencamp wants no mourners or grieving, he prompts, "If I
Die Sudden." And he's still finding purpose to carry on in "A Brand New Song,"
his set-ending variation on Bob Marley's final-album closer, "Redemption Song."
BTW, you'll find two discs in this package. The second is a higher-resolution
version of the same album that really comes to life (you should pardon the
expression) on a DVD player, revealing more presence and dramatic details,
especially in the drums and bass.
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Time Magazine Album Review:
Life, Death, Love and Freedom
John Mellencamp Life, Death, Love and Freedom; out July 15 Whereas once his indignation was trained on factory bosses, now it's Mellencamp's own broken-down self that's got him pissed. Producer T Bone Burnett creates delicate acoustics and puts the singer's disappointment ("Well I used to have some values") center stage. It will not brighten your day, but it's his best in a decade. A-
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The
Buffalo News - Mellencamp's America
By Jeff Miers / NEWS POP MUSIC CRITIC
It’s one of rock’s great ironies that John Mellencamp is known largely as a
purveyor of populist anthems in the vein of “Pink Houses,” “Small Town” and the
like. Throughout a quarter-century career that hit an early peak with 1985’s
“The Lonesome Jubilee” and has stayed remarkably consistent ever since, the
former Johnny Cougar’s best work has always been in the dark, American gothic
idiom, despite the “everyman” ethos his biggest hits have suggested.
“Life Death Love and Freedom,” out today is Mellencamp’s first record for the
forward-looking Hear Music label. It may indeed be the darkest work among a
canon that has sought to examine the dark underbelly of the American Dream.
Mellencamp does excel at conjuring rootsy rock tunes with indelible pop choruses
— indeed, they’ve made him the most money of any of his songs and are likely
responsible for the maintenance of his still-massive popularity. But when the
final tally is taken of the man’s work, the Indiana native will be remembered as
a chronicler of existential despair, a folk-based stoic whose best work suggests
that life’s treasures are fleeting, and only a form of world-weary-but-stubborn
“faith in transcendence” makes life worth living.
That’s a bitter pill to swallow, but Mellencamp ingests it with the same
voracious appetite that has made him one of rock’s most loyal chain-smokers this
side of Keith Richards. Clearly, he expects his audience to do the same. “Life
Death Love and Freedom” finds him dishing out knotty complexities by the
plateful. It’s easily his strongest album, from a lyrical standpoint at least,
since the unjustly overlooked masterpiece “Human Wheels,” released in 1993.
From the point of conception onward, there was no way this disc could lose.
Overseen by the estimable hands and ears of T Bone Burnett — on a hot streak
following the wonderful Robert Plant/Alison Krauss project “Raising Sand” — the
record’s sonic textures masterfully mirror its philosophical concerns. These, as
the album’s title suggests, aren’t exactly centered on the standard rock tropes,
i. e., girls and good times, etc.
Not since Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska,” in fact, has an American folk-based
rock record offered such a bleak metaphysics.
Springsteen reacted to the onset of the Reagan era by retreating to his New
Jersey bedroom and sketching character studies around remorse, poverty, murder,
despair, and the bankrupt state of the American Dream. Mellencamp reacts to the
tenure of Bush and Co. in an equally visceral nature, digging into the rich
tradition of the Southern gothic school, where he excavates a world view in
which hopelessness reigns as king, and man is beset by ill-intended forces from
both without and within.
The album commences with stark acoustic guitars and a naked Mellencamp vocal
intoning a front-porch folk ballad, one recalling his fondness for the Book of
Ecclesiastes — which, interestingly, he quoted in the sleeve notes for “The
Lonesome Jubilee” 23 years ago. That poetic tradition suggests that human life
is a flawed concept — marked by equal portions of joy and tragedy, and over too
soon, to boot. (“Nothing lasts forever/And your best efforts don’t always
pay/Sometimes you get sick and you don’t get well/That’s when life is short,
even in its longest days.”)
The sun never quite peeks through the clouds from there on out.
“If I Die Sudden” is a winning rewrite of the old blues piece “In My Time of
Dying,” which Mellencamp covered previously. In it, the narrator insists that no
one make a fuss when he kicks the bucket, as “this life’s been right to me/I got
a whole bunch more than I deserve.”
“Troubled Land” is a portrait of contemporary America, but unlike Mellencamp’s
most recent hit, “Our Country,” it doesn’t beg to be misunderstood as a
flag-waver. “Beware of those who want to harm you/and drag you down to a lower
game,” the singer warns, but the suggestion that “the truth is coming to bring
peace to this troubled land” sounds less like an optimistic platitude than a
disgusted clinging-to-belief.
Other songs — “John Cockers” and “A Ride Back Home” — are bleak, but Mellencamp
seems to take perverse pleasure in delivering it. One can hear him smiling as he
delivers the news, like some weatherbeaten town crier whose only pleasure comes
from being able to offer the final “I told you so” to a populace he
simultaneously despises and loves. As a half-Irish Romantic type, I laugh along
with him, but it’s doubtful the average Mellencamp fan clamoring for “R. O. C.
K. in the U. S. A.” will find the humor in this, black as it is.
Musically, “LDL&F” is much more dynamic than one might expect from what has been
billed as an acoustic record. It never devolves into the state of torpor that so
many low-key affairs centered on tragedy find themselves succumbing to. That has
much to do with the way Burnett has chosen to subtly, but colorfully, adorn
Mellencamp’s songs with rich, ambient guitars (including the contributions of
Mellencamp band members Andy York and Mike Wanchic), warm upright bass, tasteful
vocal harmonies and the like. In this world, the Buddy Holly-inspired rocker “My
Sweet Love” sounds positively celebratory, even though its lyric is concerned
with the ambivalence of enduring romantic entanglement.
“Life Death Love and Freedom” is not likely to win Mellencamp any new fans, so
demanding is its presentation, and so unflinchingly despondent is its world
view. It is, however, exactly the sort of record Mellencamp should be releasing
today, one that consistently plays to his strengths as writer and singer. Like
his past masterpieces, its honesty and lack of artifice feel cathartic. This is
Mellencamp at his best.
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Pennsylvania Times Leader - Mellencamp's Folkier Direction
The title “Life Death Love and Freedom” pretty much sets the tone for the latest installment in John Mellencamp’s extensive catalog. With his 18th album, the Indiana native veers away from his rock roots and into a folkier acoustic setting, and the maturity of both artist and music are evident from the first note to the last.
The CD begins with Mellencamp doing his best Dylan on “Longest Days.” An acoustic guitar and plaintive vocals set the scene for the poignant lyrics about looking in the rearview mirror and reflecting on a life that continues to change on a daily basis. Credit for the laid-back yet passionate tone of the album goes to producer T Bone Burnett. It’s fair to say that “Life Death” has a great deal in common with Burnett’s recent work on the Robert Plant/Alison Krauss collaboration. It’s sparse, haunting, and sets the perfect backdrop for Mellencamp’s gritty vocals. This is a combination of musician/producer that really works.
Nothing on the disc falls directly into the country bucket, but at the same time, nothing is too far away either. The first single, “My Sweet Love,” with harmony vocals from Karen Fairchild of alt-country’s Little Big Town, is simple, straightforward and tailor-made for airplay on CMT. From the dobro and mandolins on “Without a Shot” and “Young Without Lovers” to the slippery slide guitar work on “County Fair,” Mellencamp has once again shifted gears without losing track of his strengths.
He’s not a kid anymore, and the youthful rebellion of “Authority Song” and “Jack and Diane” seem miles away from the more organic approach on this CD. He still writes about the discontent and frustration felt in everyday life (“Troubled Land”) and isn’t afraid to take on a slice of controversy with a song like “Jena,” about the small Southern town caught up in a racial whirlwind. For his upcoming summer tour, it will be interesting to see how Mellencamp integrates the low-key songs from “Life Death” with his more upbeat and well-known numbers.
Never one to be predictable, the 2008 Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame inductee has settled comfortably into his fourth decade as a performer. Throughout the 50 minutes of “Life Death Love and Freedom,” it’s obvious that John Mellencamp still has a lot to say and loves saying it.
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Worcester Telegram & Gazette - Mellencamp Waxes Melancholy
3.5 out of 4 Stars By Craig S. Semon
John Mellencamp has practically given up on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness on his latest outing, “Life, Death, Love and Freedom.”
Thank heaven the 56-year-old Hoosier hasn’t given up on rock ’n’ roll.
Despite the album’s bleak subject matter, Mellencamp delivers his tunes with a gut-wrenching urgency and probing words that resonate with life experience, harsh truths and deep meaning without being overstated or standoffish. In addition to being one of the best Mellencamp discs in recent memory, this is Mellencamp at his most intense.
While the Grim Reaper, Father Time and the everyday rat race is unmercifully biting at his heels, Mellencamp fights back with rich storytelling and biting character studies, while the consistently wonderful but understated arrangements are the perfect companion to flesh out the singer’s weathered delivery and intimate lyrics.
On “Life, Death, Love and Freedom,” Mellencamp is digging his grave, trying out caskets and impatiently counting the minutes to meeting his maker. During the course of the album, The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer makes his modest funeral plans (a pine box in one song, a hole in the ground in another), welcomes death, succumbs to a cold and empty death, hails Jesus like he’s a celestial cabby and laments the impending death of a doomed nation.
Mellencamp wrestles with the sum of a man’s worth on the leadoff track, “Longest Days.” Singing with a raspy drawl that falls somewhere between Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan, Mellencamp’s gritty frankness is heightened by chug-a-lugging acoustic guitars. Reflecting on his “Jack and Diane” salad days that seem like a lifetime ago, Mellencamp is starting to come to terms that “life goes on long after the thrill of living is gone.” With his best days behind him and nothing to look forward to except pain and suffering, Mellencamp concludes, “All I got here/Is a rearview mirror/Reflections of where I’ve been/So you tell yourself I’ll be back up on top some day/But you know there’s nothing waiting up there/For you anyway.”
Before he’s pushing up daisies, an over-the-moon Mellencamp delivers a jubilant ode to amour, “My Sweet Love.” On the album’s lead single, Mellencamp unleashes his scruffy romantic side and concludes, “It sure would feel good to feel good again/Oh, my sweet love.” And he’s right. With a rumbling, tumbling drumbeat that seems to represent the pitter-patter of the rocker’s racing heart alongside adrenaline-pumping, rockabilly guitars, the song erupts into an explosive rocker.
On “John Cockers,” Mellencamp weaves a riveting, albeit unflinching, portrayal of a man who is mad at the world and at the end of his rope. Snarling out the lyrics as if he’s grinding the words into powder with his clenching teeth, Mellencamp scolds, “Well, I used to have some values/Now they just make me laugh/I used to think things would work out fine/But they never did do that.” Passionate in his bile toward people who have nothing to do with him and a life that has given him nothing but regret, Mellencamp creates a character that we pity and despise but won’t soon forget.
On “Don’t Need this Body,” Mellencamp shrugs, “This getting older ain’t for cowards.” He laments the ravages of time and how it is causing him to have failing eyesight, decreased motor skills, increased memory loss and fewer friends. Mellencamp takes the listener totally off guard during the album’s moodiest number, “County Fair.” What appears to be a lively foray into Springsteen-esque storytelling takes an unexpected grisly turn into the night he was murdered. Minding his own business when a stranger fatally stabbed him in the chest three times, Mellencamp nonchalantly muses, “Some people put no value on a human life/And there are places that we all go/That just ain’t safe at night/If somebody’d do this to me/They might do it to you/So be careful where you go/And what you say and do.”
Near the tail end of the disc on “For the Children,” Mellencamp bids adieu and gives musical well-wishes to future generations. Realizing that he doesn’t know the answer to life’s big question, Mellencamp concludes, “All I can do here is my best/And be thankful for what we’ve got.”
Mellencamp certainly delivered his best here, giving his fans plenty to be thankful for.
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Hartford Courant - Album Review
John Mellencamp has ranked among the most restless voices in American music
for more than 25 years, a frank messenger of the frustration and discontent he
finds simmering in the American heartland. With T Bone Burnett along as
producer, the 56-year-old Hoosier creates a fresh canvas for his socially
agitated rock on "Life, Death, Love and Freedom," a moody, stark and
hypnotically discomfiting assortment of ruminations.
Mortality, both personal and collective, is an undercurrent of his
contemplations, offered with near-tragic pragmatism on the measured, sparse
"Longest Days" and with a bitter edge when he laments what society has
carelessly given away in "Without a Shot." His weathered, gritty singing suits
tunes that inhabit dark places, prodding the slow rock churn of the desperate
man's tale "John Cockers" and making a straightforward call for change on the
topical "Jena" as he settles into arrangements that are evocative but not
colorful.
The high-definition version of the album included on an accompanying DVD
captures the subtleties of his roots-leaning palette with haunting clarity,
which places in sharp relief the feisty ardor of the rumbling, twang-laced "My
Sweet Love." Lucid but troubled on the muted, folk-style "Mean" and full of
weary resignation within the shimmering "For the Children," Mellencamp navigates
a severe sonic landscape in a manner more purposeful than entertaining, one that
compels with its rough-edged passions.
Essential download: "My Sweet Love"
-- Thomas Kintner
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Columbus Dispatch - Rocker Hears Dark Muse
Tuesday, July 15, 2008 -
By Aaron Beck
The Columbus Dispatch
If the name "John Mellencamp" still evokes pop songs such as Jack & Diane, Hurts
So Good or R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A., the singer's 20th album, Life Death Love and
Freedom, ought to muddy those associations.
The album, released today, is a carry-over of the loose, spare, electric
Appalachian blues approach that producer and guitarist T Bone Burnett applied to
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand album last year.
At first listen, there aren't so much songs on Life Death Love and Freedom as a
vibe, and it's anything but summertime-and-the-livin'-is-easy.
Reverbed guitars, rattlesnakelike tambourines and shakers, cocktail drums, the
Grim Reaper (unbilled in the liner notes) conjuring hell with a pump organ --
most of the nervy music sounds like a tremolo-laden soundtrack for a death
letter to Mellencamp's kin and countrymen.
At 56, the Hoosier country-rock squire has shelved his dancing shoes and plopped
his writing desk down in an existential plot somewhere in the south-central
Indiana hills.
Sometimes, Mortality enjoys the upper hand: "Nothing lasts forever / Your best
efforts don't always pay / Sometimes you get sick / And you don't get better /
That's when life is short / Even in its longest days" (Longest Days).
Sometimes, Mellencamp puts his opponent on the ropes: "There ain't nobody needs
to know that I'm gone / Just put me in a pine box 6 feet underground / Don't be
callin' no minister / I don't need one around / I don't need no preacher around"
(If I Die Sudden).
Sometimes, Mellencamp and Mortality are strolling toward the light hand in hand:
"All my friends are sick or dyin' / And I'm here all by myself / All I got left
is a headful of memories and a thought of my upcoming death" (Don't Need This
Body).
Mellencamp and company provide levity on the toe-tapping A Ride Back Home and My
Sweet Love, which feature Little Big Town singer Karen Fairchild, but the rays
of sunshine are short-lived. When your muse has been morphing from Van Morrison,
Bobby Fuller and James Brown into Son House, Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie,
that's what you're going to get.
What's more, Mellencamp's dry, cracking, cigarette- smoke-scarred voice
perfectly suits these midnight-hour lyrics.
Coupled with Burnett's production, Life Death Love and Freedom from start to
finish makes for one of Mellencamp's best albums of his 30-odd-year career.
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Performing Songwriter Magazine - Featured Review July-August 2008
One of America’s original journeyman rockers—a distinction shared with Springsteen, Fogerty and Seger—John Mellencamp begins his affiliation with superstar-laden Hear Music by pulling up roots and returning to the heartland. Of course, Mellencamp’s Everyman attitude has generally reflected homespun values, from the compelling refrain of “Pink Houses” lamenting suburban sprawl to the populist appeal of “R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.” and the sepia-tinged nostalgia cushioning “Jack and Diane.” But while albums like Scarecrow and The Lonesome Jubilee have found him traversing equally rustic terrain, the lack of commercial concern is especially apparent here.
Consequently, this set of revisionist folk songs is so immersed in authenticity, it could have been spawned in the Mississippi Delta or ripped from Woody Guthrie’s songbook. With the venerable T Bone Burnett behind the boards, the parched, stripped-down settings befit these weathered tales, even as Mellencamp’s coarse vocals echo the weariness and woes the album’s sweeping title implies. The turgid rumination imbued in “Longest Days,” “Young Without Lovers,” “Without a Shot” and “Country Fair” may surprise, and indeed, there’s little evidence of Mellencamp’s radio-ready past … the soulful sway of “Mean” and “Troubled Land” notwithstanding.
A bonus high-definition DVD offers enhanced sound, but ultimately, it’s the unlikely mesh of intimacy and insurgency that affirms Mellencamp’s status as an American original. —LZ
FOR FANS OF:
Bruce Springsteen – Devils and Dust
Bob Dylan – Time Out of Mind
Steve Earle – The Mountain
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People Magazine Critic's Choice - 7/12/08
3 1/2 out of 4 stars By Chuck Arnold
Having been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame this year, John Mellencamp could certainly be forgiven for coasting a bit on the memory of Jack and Diane. Instead, the heartland rocker has released one of his best discs in years. On the stark, stirring meditation on Life, Death, Love, and Freedom, Mellencamp pairs up with Grammy winner producer T Bone Burnett (“Oh Brother Where Art Thou”) who brings a rootsy realness to the music and digs out some of the grittiest vocals ever from the singer. Meanwhile, Karen Fairchild of the country group Little Big Town provides vocals on four songs including first single “My Sweet Love”, a little ditty about down home romance. DOWNLOAD THIS: "Longest Days," a spare, Springsteen-esque ballad.
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Springfield (MA) Sunday Republican 4 Stars
It's really refreshing when artists come through with some of the best work of their career at a time when they really don't need to.
John Mellencamp has been to the rock 'n' roll mountaintop, and could comfortably rest on his stack of hits the rest of his life.
But like John Lennon did on "Double Fantasy," Mellencamp is writing for people his age and frequently doing so brilliantly on the perfectly-titled 14-song saga "Life, Death, Love and Freedom."
Produced by T-Bone Burnett and featuring Mellencamp's veteran touring band, the disc is sparse and to the point. The somber wake-up call about the shortness of life, "Longest Days," sets the tone immediately, and other cuts including the raw blues of "If I Die Sudden" and "Don't Need This Body" offer deeply spiritual thoughts guaranteed to make you listen again and again, just to get closer to where the writer was at, with each new
spin.
There are also some upbeat musical moments as well, particularly the first single "My Sweet Love," which sounds very reminiscent of vintage of Buddy Holly.
The CD comes packaged as a double disc. The first is a standard CD. The second disc, a DVD, features the same songs except in the very warm sounding 96 khz, 24-bit high definition CODE audio format. Developed by Burnett and his team of engineers, it is playable on all DVD players. - Kevin O’Hare
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Entertainment Weekly
The onetime Johnny Cougar firmly embraces geezerdom with Life Death Love and Freedom. “Just put me in a pinebox/ Six feet underground” sings Mellencamp on “If I Die Sudden,” one of this album’s slow-burning rockers. And for much of the T Bone Burnett-produced collection, his grizzled vocals seem as if they belong to someone who really is about to shuffle off this mortal coil – which perfect suits such melancholy tracks as the terrific riffing blues of “John Cockers” and the Tom Petty-ish “Troubled Land.” Though he may be contemplating mortality, Mellencamp, with his weathered snarl, still sounds remarkably alive. B by Clark Collis ¬->DOWNLOAD THIS: “John Cockers”
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Lexington Herald Leader
7/8/08: Critic's pick: John Mellencamp
By Walter Tunis Contributing Music Critic
The shadows hanging over the pink houses John Mellencamp sang about ages ago sure have gotten longer.
On Without a Shot, one of the typically stark tunes that T Bone Burnett produced for the Hoosier rocker's new album Life Death Love and Freedom, such hopeful Americana bliss has all but evaporated. ”This weary old house can't take it anymore,“ Mellencamp sings slowly in a cigarette-scarred voice against a plaintive mandolin melody. ”Rope hanging in the bedroom. That's some of our dirty work.“
Yeah, ain't that America.
Mellencamp has visited these dark rural routes before, especially on last year's Freedom's Road. But then that was the album that contained Our Country, a soundtrack tune for a series of truck commercials that was just too jingoistic in design to make his bleaker takes of hard times in harder lands ring fully true.
On Life Death Love and Freedom, the disillusionment with the American Dream offers fewer hiding places. The country revivalism of My Sweet Love, complete with Little Big Town's Karen Fairchild on harmony vocals and Dane Clark's simple, rolling drum lines, offer a nice, rootsy party and a modest dose of sunshine. But to get there, you have to deal first with the most beautifully deflating album-opening tune Mellencamp has ever cut.
On Longest Days, a drum-less acoustic meditation, the restless, rambunctious spirit of youth slowly fades into something other than a coming-of-age story. ”You keep on acting the same, but deep down in your soul you know you got no flame.“
Burnett's hand in these gray Americana postscripts is everywhere. No sooner does Mellencamp reach for a shred of Woody Guthrie-style spiritualism on Don't Need This Body (which he captures rather convincingly) than Burnett's dark electric twang enters like a swelling thunderstorm. Later, the distortion, reverb and tremelo ripping through the already disruptive tale of carnies and con artists in County Fair (”the county fair left quite a mess in the county yard“) is again Burnett's handiwork.
So what you have here is an evenly matched team. In one corner is a songsmith who once topped the charts singing of America's homespun joys but is now prone to sifting through the wreckage as the Bush years come to a close. In the other is possibly the most formative Americana producer of our age (rumor has it that Burnett's next candidate for rootsy reinvention is B.B. King) dressing these dark songs with even darker guitar fabrics. The resulting sound, which, at times, strips Mellencamp's band down to a trio, is like a ghostly emancipation. In short, there are no hits here. No truck commercials. None are intended.
Life Death Love and Freedom, then, differs considerably from Freedom's Road. The tone, the very stakes of the characters in the songs, are more sobering. But then what was it that Kris Kristofferson wrote about in Me and Bobby McGee at the dawn of the '70s? ”Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.“
Here, the inhabitants of Mellencamp's music, with Burnett fanning the flames, are pushed to that very point. Life Death Love and Freedom might wind up to some as uneasy or even radical listening. That's too bad. It's his best album in 21 years.
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Blog Critics Magazine
Written by T. Michael Testi -
Published July 05, 2008
Life, Death, Love, and Freedom is John Mellencamp's 20th album and due to be
release on July 15th. It was described by Mike Wanchic, Mellencamp's long-time
guitar player as "...very, very, very, organic." In March 2008 Mellencamp told
the Bloomington Herald-Times the album is "The best record I've ever made." As
of the writing of this article, Mellencamp is on a four-week tour of the U.S.A.,
promoting Life, Death, Love, and Freedom.
Life, Death, Love, and Freedom was produced by the Grammy winning songwriter,
musician, and producer, T Bone Burnett. His discography covers 14 personal
albums, with songs that have been covered by the likes of k.d. lang, Los Lobos,
Warren Zevon, Emmylou Harris, Arlo Guthrie, and more. It is Burnett's moody,
almost under produced technique that gives Life, Death, Love, and Freedom its
down home feel. The same American roots sound that made his Grammy winning "O
Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack so recognizable and work so well.
I can't say that Life, Death, Love, and Freedom is a totally different sound for
Mellencamp, but it is a different sound. More depth, more feel, more deep down
roots to it that keep digging deeper the more you listen. It has a bluesy,
country feel to it that is somewhere between Woody Guthrie and Robert Johnson.
In the past you have had the fun Mellencamp and the serious Mellencamp and this
is definitely much more of the latter. There are no bright catchy tunes or
anthems that will rally the troops. These are much more thoughtful,
retrospective, moody songs. Yet at the same time, the tunes will catch you in
their own way.
There are some songs, like the distorted sounding "If I Die Sudden" and "Don't
Need This Body", which will haunt your mind long after the last waves blend into
the atmosphere. There are tracks that have that Mellencamp slow-song feel like
"Longest Days," "Mean," and "Troubled Land", that leave you feeling some of the
darkness that Mellencamp seems to feel.
There are some that seem to work on their own like "Young Without Lovers," "John
Cockers," and "Without a Shot." And there are some that work as plain music like
"My Sweet Love", that has the Buddy Holly and the Crickets feel, with a big
timpani drums sound and simple guitar work flowing in and out; as well as "A
Ride Back Home" with a simple plea to Jesus to help him find his way, which is
underscored by vocals and harmonies.
Where would we be without a little political statement from Mellencamp, and
there are a lot spread throughout this album. He has always been able to pull
off the political song, and by avoiding using contemporary names, he allows it
to fit in for generations to come. He is probably the best at this since Dylan;
certainly better than anyone in the last 30 years.
Take for example Mellencamp's recent request to the Republican candidate John
McCain, to stop using his songs for the McCain political campaign. One of the
songs in question was his 1983 hit "Pink Houses," a song that was a slap to the
Republican President, and party in general, at the time.
The real political song on this album is the one called "Jena" which rallies
around the racially charged Jena Six trial in Louisiana — in which six black
teenagers were charged with the beating of white student Justin Barker at Jena
High School.
While like any album, there are some songs I like better than others, all stand
on their own. I think the darkness of Life, Death, Love, and Freedom, may not
play for everyone, and certainly not for every mood. I do feel that that this is
John Mellencamp's best album in a decade, and perhaps over time, will prove to
be one of the better records that he has given us. When you want that slow moody
Mellencamp sound, I highly recommend Life, Death, Love, and Freedom.
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Billboard Magazine: My Sweet Love Single Review
My Sweet Love - June 28, 2008
Like so many formidable singer/ songwriters that reigned in past decades, John Mellencamp has been tossed off top 40, but he's adapted to a comfortable new home at country and triple A—and the latter format is lapping up folk-laden "My Sweet Love" from upcoming full-length "Life, Death, Love and Freedom" (July 15). The rumbling, percussive-driven track sounds like it was recorded in someone's garage, with an oft-repeated hook that charms with rubber-band elasticity. While Mellencamp likely hopes to also champion at country with "background" vocals from Little Big Town's Karen Fairchild, her way-too-prominent singalong actually distracts from the tune's otherwise organic charm. No matter. Mellencamp's swagger is intact and radio is bound to give "Love" a major embrace. —Chuck Taylor