{"id":41056,"date":"2008-08-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-08-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/life-death-love-and-freedom\/"},"modified":"2008-08-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2008-08-15T00:00:00","slug":"life-death-love-and-freedom","status":"publish","type":"review","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/reviews\/life-death-love-and-freedom\/","title":{"rendered":"Life Death Love And Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spend entirely too much time at Starbucks, which is why I\u2019ve seen John Mellencamp\u2019s stoic face on the cover of his latest album upwards of fifty times since it was released in July with the coffeehouse\u2019s Hear Music label. Of course, this would be way more of an annoyance if this disc, his eighteenth, wasn\u2019t the compelling, hauntingly soulful collection that it is, which Mellencamp himself has characterized as \u201cmodern eclectic folk songs.\u201d Life, Death, Love, And Freedom <\/i>is bleak and lonely throughout as it covers his own passing and the loss of America<\/st1:place><\/st1:country-region>\u2019s moral vision — it\u2019s a tough listen, to be sure, but Mellencamp weathered, raspy drawl is familiar and evocative, while the accompanying instrumentation is sparsely graceful, courtesy of T Bone Burnett helming the album\u2019s production.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Of the four themes \u2013 love, death, life, and freedom \u2013 death is featured the most prominently here.\u00a0 Save for the rollicking \u201850s-esque feel of leadoff single \u201cMy Sweet Love\u201d with its twangy guitars and driving drums, the rest of the material is resoundingly disquieting. Opener \u201cLongest Days\u201d finds itself accented with little more than light guitar plucking, letting Mellencamp\u2019s weary, weighted-down vocals shine on lines like \u201cSo you tell yourself \/ I\u2019ll be back on top someday \/ But you know there\u2019s nothing \/ Waiting up there for you anyway,\u201d while \u201cIf I Die Sudden\u201d\u00a0 and \u201cDon\u2019t Need This Body\u201d are starkly dark stunners. The buzz of heavily distorted guitars backs these tracks, and the gospel hymn feel lends both a plain-spoken realism rather than sinking too far deep into pessimism.<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Mellencamp takes on an increasingly convoluted America most pointedly with \u201cTroubled Land,\u201d which pairs his muted, gruff vocals with a thick, winding groove and sharply-penned lyrics (\u201cThe eyes of heaven are upon you \/ But so is the soul from down below \/ They\u2019ll cut off your fingers \/ To bring peace to this troubled land\u201d) that sound eerily prophetic. \u201cWithout A Shot\u201d echoes this foreboding, warning against a people devouring itself from the inside out all in the name of freedom, the accompanying organ and mandolin providing an appropriate Gothic moodiness here. \u201cJena<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>,\u201d meanwhile, tackles the now-infamous Jena Six trial in Louisiana<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> (in which six black teens were charged with the beating of one white teenager by an all-white jury) with a cool bluntness that is reinforced by the crisp drums, not to mention a surprisingly melodic guitar break. <\/o:p><\/p>\n

Occasionally, amid all the razor-sharp cuts, there are some moments of hope and grace. Closer \u201cA Brand New Song\u201d seems the antidote to the detachment of \u201cYoung Without Lovers,\u201d its almost sweetly buoyant instrumentation coupling well with Mellencamp own rising, purposeful vocals as he finally proclaims, \u201cLife is always in motion \/ New people to count on \/ Here we find a purpose \/ To sing a brand new song.\u201d<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Life, Death, Love, And Freedom <\/i>is a relentless, aching, yet ultimately brave album, one wholly unconcerned with chart positions or radio airplay. Instead, Mellencamp has crafted a rare, unflinching portrait of himself and the world around him, for better or for worse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":29477,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5703],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-41056","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-john-mellencamp","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41056","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\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41056"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}