Reviewed August 20, 2008
John Mellancamp Life Death Love and Freedom
by Ron Hollywood

Produced by T Bone Burnett

Gone are the Americana pumping anthems and you can forget any kind of R.O.C.K to be found anywhere. This is a dark bluesy and sombre acoustic album that relies with John’s most personal lyrics on the subjects of loneliness and mostly death.

The album opens with the acoustic Longest Days which is very reminiscent of Springsteen’s Nebraska album and contain lyrics that John seems to have written about his own career “All I got here / is a rear view mirror / Reflections of where I’ve been / So you tell yourself I’ll be back on top someday / But you know there’s nothing waiting up there for you anyway.”

The big beat first single My Sweet Love wakes things up, but only a bit. It’s really the blues drive of If I Die Sudden that sets the tone for a good portion of the album. He’s already explored this genre on the excellent blues covers album Trouble No More and it seems to have enthused him to try his own hand at writing the blues, and boy does he ever. Mellencamp’s blues is so good that many of these songs feel like they were written by old blues artists of the 30’s both musically and lyrically. This is most evident on the guitar picking John Cockers “In one desperate moment / I’m gonna dig me a hole / I’m gonna lie down in it / And let be what will be / And when the morning sun rises / There’ll be no one to mourn for me”. This theme continues on the dread of Don’t Need This Body “All I got left is a headful of memories / And a thought of my upcoming death / Ain’t Gonna need this body much longer / I put in ten million hours / Washed up and worn out for sure.”

Not even a trip on the brooding darkness of County Fair escapes the theme of death. The main character walks around observing the rides, all the dirty dealings going on and ends with “When a fella walked up and said / Hey man I remember you / And then he shoved me and pulled out his knife / Stuck me three times in the chest / And I died that night.”

Amongst all the death and loneliness John cries out to Jesus on the country feel of A Ride Back Home “Hey Jesus can you get me a ride home / I’ve been out in this world too long / I won’t bother you no more / if you can just get me in the door.”

Since day one Mellencamp has always been a songwriter and this album is definetly more personal and dark then anything he’s written before. This is an album you want to sit down and listen to with the lyric booklet in hand. As the great lyricist he is Mellencamp’s social and political stance is still as strong as ever on the racially charged Jena “An all white jury hides the executioner’s face / See how we are me and you / Everyone here needs to know their place / let’s keep this blackbird hidden in the flue / Oh Jena / Take your nooses down.”

The cowboy showdown sounding Without A Shot left me knowing what I’ve always known about Mellencamp’s writing: it’s honest “So we think that forgiveness is a God given right / And equality of all is a waste of time / Wih our nickel plated Jesus chained around our necks / Handing out verses of scripture like we wrote it down ourselves / respect that we one had went up the water spout / Tried to keep it secret / but the secret was found out.”

With an album of songs that you won’t be humming along to the forgettable songs like For The Children are real b-side filler. This is an album you will only want to listen to at certain times unlike classics like Scarecrow. While this does get a bit too slow at times and may disappoint those looking for hit singles this is a great lyrical and blues record.

1. “Longest Days” – 3:11
2. “My Sweet Love” – 3:27
3. “If I Die Sudden” – 3:45
4. “Troubled Land” – 3:23
5. “Young Without Lovers” – 2:49
6. “John Cockers” – 3:51
7. “Don’t Need This Body” – 3:26
8. “A Ride Back Home” – 3:12
9. “Without A Shot” – 3:40
10. “Jena” – 3:41
11. “Mean” – 2:34
12. “County Fair” – 3:41
13. “For The Children” – 4:36
14. “A Brand New Song” – 3:58

duration : 49:40

Click here to see the racially charged video for Jena

Life Death Love and Freedom is also the first album in history to utilise a new recording process invented by producer T Bone Burnett in the ΧΟΔΕ (CODE) format. T-Bone Burnett and his team of engineers developed CODE, a proprietary audio technology that creates high-definition audio files that are virtually indistinguishable from the original master tapes. The CODE version of _Life, Death, Love and Freedom is a DVD that will come packaged with a standard CD version of the album, available at all retail outlets, at no additional cost to the consumer. The CODE disc is playable on virtually all DVD machines including stand-alone players and drives integrated into computer systems. The DVD’s content can be copied into most computer music software including iTunes and can, then, be downloaded onto personal music players such as the iPod.

Mellencamp commented, “When T-Bone introduced me to CODE, it was a remarkable experience. I could hear the music the way it was intended to be heard. I’m very happy the people are going to be able to share this experience in a way that’s so true to our original intent.

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