John Mellencamp - John Mellencamp (Audio CD - 1998)

For the multinomenclatured John Mellencamp, falling into loping historical pace as the "poor man's Springsteen" has been a blessing in disguise. If you're perpetually second best, to whose expectations do you ultimately answer? Certainly not your audience's--they're prepared for so-so songwriting. It's a win-win situation in which even your most lackluster material appears "Thunder Road" brilliant. Follow this train of thinking and you might hear Mellencamp's eponymous album as something of a minor masterpiece. The self-dubbed Li'l Bastard is pushing himself stylistically, adding exotic flavors and high-tech ones to his bass-guitar-violin foundation. The uninitiated, however, will observe a far less sensational situation: the Hoosier's nonchalant reliance on his trademark Cougar-isms--Biblical metaphors, "Jack and Diane"-ish one-dimensional characters, and the simple, chirrupy jangle of a trusty six-string acoustic. Somewhere between the two extremes lies the artistic truth. Mellencamp is kicking desperately at his gate, and that's a good thing. But his corral remains relatively small and limited.
Condition:NEW. Punched UPC

TRACK LISTING

1 Fruit Trader 3:58
2 Your Life Is Now 3:59
3 Positively Crazy 4:09
4 I'm Not Running Anymore 3:26
5 It All Comes True 3:58
6 Eden Is Burning 3:50
7 Where The World Began 3:29
8 Miss Missy 3:40
9 Chance Meeting At The Tarantula 4:05
10 Break Me Off Some 4:10
11 Summer of Love 4:01
12 Days Of Farewell 3:13