|
John Mellencamp has always been a feisty little guy -- the sort of fella who doesn't necessarily go out looking for a fight but who's willing to rumble at the drop of a hat, should a worthy cause present itself. From the sound of this disc, his first set of new material in five years, the Hoosier hellion has found plenty of causes to take on. Despite the fact that the now-ubiquitous "Our Country" was first heard as the backdrop of a car commercial, it's clear from even a cursory listen that Freedom Road is a hardscrabble paean to the guts-and-glory side of working-class America. That wizened-yet-wistful longing for the days when a workingman (or -woman) could carve out a proper niche is palpable on songs like the aching "Ghost Towns Along the Highway." Freedom Road isn't a nostalgia album, though, not by a long shot. That's evident in the rock-ribbed delivery of the stripped-bare "Jim Crow," on which Mellencamp recruits Joan Baez to help underscore the intensity of his feelings on racial disharmony. A similar dissatisfaction courses through "Rodeo Clown," an unabashedly acerbic takedown that could be construed as a slap against the overall culture of Washington, D.C. -- but, upon further review, is directed more pointedly a the current resident of the White House.
Condition : NEW! BRAND NEW FACTORY SEALED!
TRACK LISTINGS
1 Someday
2 Ghost Towns Along the Highway
3 The Americans
4 Forgiveness
5 Freedom's Road
6 Jim Crow
7 Our Country
8 Rural Route
9 My Aeroplane
10 Heaven Is a Lonely Place/Rodeo Clown
|