If there is any artist who could benefit from a greatest-hits
\ncollection, it is John Mellencamp.<\/p>\n
Throughout the course of his career, he’s managed to produce
\nsome great songs. The problem is he’s padded out his albums with
\nlame material – probably the one exception being
\nHuman Wheels<\/i>.<\/p>\n
This pattern continues with his latest effort,
\nMr. Happy Go Lucky<\/i>, his first release since suffering a
\nheart attack a few years ago.<\/p>\n
Prior to the album’s release, there was a lot of hope on my part
\nthat it would be better than his last effort, the abysmal
\nDance Naked<\/i>. Upon hearing the first single, “Key West
\nIntermezzo (I Saw You First),” my hopes seemed to be confirmed.
\nHere was a song with an entirely different feel than other
\nMellencamp works – it almost sounded hip-hop in the beat. The
\nmaterial was fresh and inviting, and the song hooks you in
\nquickly.<\/p>\n
Ah, but singles can be deceiving – “Key West Intermezzo” was,
\nsadly, the best song on
\nMr. Happy Go Lucky<\/i>. That fresh, hip-hop beat? It gets stale
\nreal<\/i> quickly. There is a lack of leadership among the
\nmusicians backing up Mellencamp – there is no biting lead guitar,
\nno real good use of rhythm instruments, etc. – except on the
\nsingle, and two instrumental tracks, one leading the album off, one
\nnear its completion… and those are mere throw-aways.<\/p>\n
But with all his time off, surely Mellencamp has refined his art
\nof songwriting, you may ask. Unfortunately, the answer is no. The
\nmaterial is bland and boring. In fact, unless you were paying close
\nattention, you would hardly notice the tracks blending together to
\nmake one indifferent mess.<\/p>\n
Even when he tries to get a point across, Mellencamp falls flat
\n– “Emotional Love” and “Life Is Hard” being two prime examples.<\/p>\n
Mellencamp knows how to write and play good songs, and with the
\nexception of the one hit single, there is little evidence of that
\non
\nMr. Happy Go Lucky<\/i>. Once I had thought that Mellencamp
\ncouldn’t sink lower than the terrible
\nWhenever We Wanted<\/i> or
\nDance Naked<\/i>. I hate it when artists prove me wrong.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24375,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5703],"rating":[11205],"class_list":["post-35579","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-john-mellencamp","rating-rating-d-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/35579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35579"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=35579"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=35579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}