LA Daily News: No Better Than This Review
LA Daily News By Jeff Wareham
John Mellencamp has made 21 records over a 34-year period and on his newest one, he tries to sound as raw and simple as he possibly can - and it works.
T Bone Burnett produced the album with minimal instrumentation and very little production value, including recording everything with one microphone in mono and Mellencamp playing his guitar through a 1955 amplifier. He and Burnett also went as far as recording in the same hotel room that bluesman Robert Johnson did in 1937 as well as in the same Sun Studio that Elvis and Johnny Cash did 50 years ago.
The result is a fantastic exploration of history, with songs that sound authentic and fuzzy like "Save Some Time to Dream," "Don't Forget About Me" and the title track, which flash back to the old Johnny Cash/Carl Perkins/Elvis/Jerry Lee Lewis era in music history.
In an era of frequent overproduction on an album, Mellencamp and Burnett under-did it and made it sound cool again.
John Mellencamp has made 21 records over a 34-year period and on his newest one, he tries to sound as raw and simple as he possibly can - and it works.
T Bone Burnett produced the album with minimal instrumentation and very little production value, including recording everything with one microphone in mono and Mellencamp playing his guitar through a 1955 amplifier. He and Burnett also went as far as recording in the same hotel room that bluesman Robert Johnson did in 1937 as well as in the same Sun Studio that Elvis and Johnny Cash did 50 years ago.
The result is a fantastic exploration of history, with songs that sound authentic and fuzzy like "Save Some Time to Dream," "Don't Forget About Me" and the title track, which flash back to the old Johnny Cash/Carl Perkins/Elvis/Jerry Lee Lewis era in music history.
In an era of frequent overproduction on an album, Mellencamp and Burnett under-did it and made it sound cool again.