Like we didn't already know, right?
Typical to form, Mellencamp sends mixed messages on Life Death Love & Freedom, which is due out in stores this upcoming Tuesday on the Hear Music label. For starters, there's that association with the Starbucks funded label. Not exactly a way of sticking it to the man for sure.
But I'm willing to cut Mellencamp some slack here.
In an age where traditional music marketing through the usual channels has bitten the dust, an artist like Mellencamp who is most often associated with the classic rock tag has gotta do what he's gotta do to get his songs out there. Rock radio was corrupted long ago, the labels have all been co-opted by corporate shareholders, and outside of the precious few independent avenues remaining, music retail is all but dead.
As I said, ya' gotta do what ya' gotta do, even if it means shaking hands with a new devil.
Looking past that, I've also gotta give Mellencamp his due on where he chose to actually take the new songs found on Life Death Love & Freedom. While last year's Freedom Road was hardly a runaway hit, it still brought Mellencamp the most commercial attention he has seen in a very long time (albeit largely due to those truck ads for the song "Our Country"). It would have been both easy, and commercially prudent, to follow that up with some radio-friendly hits, which I am absolutely sure Mellencamp can still pull out of his songwriter's ass on a moments notice.
Instead, on Life Death Love & Freedom, Mellencamp has stripped the songs down to their barest — and quite frankly, very dark sounding minimum. Although, this isn't quite Mellencamp's Nebraska, the feel here overall is still very stark, folkish and bluesy. The characters who populate the songs here are likewise simple folk in search of something as seemingly universal — yet, nonetheless hard to find — in their everyday lives as just finding a way out. If there is a unifying theme here, it is one that is deeply personal, and cuts right to the bone.
Article comments
1 - Pico
A good read, Glen. I liked Mellencamp's last album and I also liked T-Bone Burnett's work on the Plant/Kraus collaboration, so I'll most probably like this one, too.
2 - Connie Phillips
Congrats! This article has been forwarded to the Advance.net websites and Boston.com.
3 - Mat Brewster
Very interesting. I just escaped Mellencamp central otherwise known as Bloomington, Indiana so I've actually managed to not hear the hype on this one, but with this review I think you've sucked me back in.