Beware Mellencamp Fans

John Mellencamp's Life, Death, Love and Freedom will not win back the fans who want to hear "Hurts So Good" and nothing else from him. Mellencamp has been on this road for the past decade, willing to perform his old hits in concert because that's what pays the bills, but making albums that have nothing to do with his 80's heyday. This is as stripped down and dark as Mellencamp will probably ever get. It's a tough synopsis of today's world, but Mellencamp does find some love and hope for us all. His voice is craggy and T Bone Burnett's production is typically rural. There's an out of place song in "My Sweet World" that is there to please radio programmers. If you've tuned him out since his last chart success in the early 90's then this won't please you either. But I've always fell for Mellencamp's midwest ruminations whether they were dressed up in pop hooks or stripped down to their bare essentials.