REVIEWS:
Post your comments about John Mellencamp
(reviewed by Pat D.)
I will admit to not knowing just about anything about John (Cougar) Mellencamp's history. Well, except for the fact that he changed his name like three times or so. First he was Johnny Cougar, then John Cougar Mellancamp, and now in good ol' 2000, Mr. Camp now just goes by the more maturish (I guess) guise of just plain ol' John Mellencamp. So, aside from the most name changes by an individual in rock history, did Johnny bring anything else to the table? Oh hell yes. Thanks to the onslaught of alternative bands and pop crap the exceptional hits on this CD had unfortunately faded from my memory. In a sense, I might be overrating his CD a bit, cause it ain't perfect, but this guy showed over his 20 year (and counting) career that he really was one of the better songwriters in the history of pop/rock.
And John always seemed to have a great group of backing musicians behind him. Guitrist Larry Crane in particular can just flat out PLAY. The man never overplays, nor does he play at blinding speeds ala John Petrucci or Marty Friedman, but he does have wonderful tone and feel. Those solos in "I Need A Lover" are quite speedy though. I wonder why I've never heard of him? As for the track listing, I must first state that I do not own a single Mellencamp album, so I cannot be sure of just how good the track sampling is; maybe someone who knows what he's talking about can help me out here. All I know is that except for two rather dull tracks "Ain't Even Done With the Night" and "Without Expression" this album COOKS. It's one of those CDs where just when you think it cannot get any better than the track you just listened to, the next track blows you away just as much.
My absolute favorite Johnny Cougar track is "Small Town" thanks to the beautiful chiming guitars and melodies. Personally, I feel this is one of the finest rock songs ever written, and that includes everybody who has ever penned a power chord. But it doesn't stop there. Remember "ROCK in the USA" "Pink Houses" "Jack and Diane" or "Crumblin Down"? All on here. Just an exceptional grouping of songs to listen to any time of the day. And no, I do not feel guilty about giving Mr. Mellencamp a 10 even with those two mediocre tracks I mentioned. It's that good, people.
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COMMENTS
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is some kind of sick joke, right? What really bugs me is how you state that the album has a couple weak tracks, yet you give it a 10? Isn't that a bit hypocritical considering around two days earlier you stated that an album wouldn't get a 10 unless all the tracks were great? Let's consider the albums you gave this a higher rating than:
Sepultura -- Arise
Anthrax -- Among the Living
DREAM THEATER -- IMAGES AND WORDS (heavy emphasis on this one, especially considering you said yourself none of the songs were really weak)
Megadeth -- Rust in Peace
Pearl Jam -- Ten
I don't see how you can go on and on about the banal taste of the pop music-loving public, yet rave over such crappy pop fluff like this. You want to listen to a kick-ass album, go pick up a copy of Bloody Kisses by Type O Negative. I hear Kenny Hickey has one fuck of a guitar tone. But then again, they're probably to "slow" for you! LOL!
[email protected] (Rich Bunnell)
I'm not gonna slag the opinion stated in this review, but John Mellencamp is easily one of my least favorite musical artists of all time. It's gotten to the point where I can recognize the first bar of one of his songs and change the station on the drop of a hat when I hear the beginning of his boring-as-hell songs like "Pink Houses" or "Jack an Diane" or "Hurts So Good", etc, etc. I'm not trying to be pretentious--I just can't stand John Mellencamp. And that's all I have to say about that.