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USA Today 3.5 Out Of 5 Stars
07.14.2008 - * * * 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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