Freedom's Road (2007)
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
11.Rodeo Clown
 
Throughout my reviews of this artist's
work, I have noticed that I tend to sadly shake my head (in a written
sense) whenever Mellencamp gets political. It's not that I disagree
with a lot of his politics (to be fair, I do in some cases), but I've
never appreciated the tone and manner in which he chooses to express
them. He's always come across as a bit immature. All of that changes
on this release. On this record, Mellencamp has finally written a
lyrical masterpiece as well as a musical one. This is the
strongest statement he's made in about two decades.
If one were to actually go back in time to the Johnny Cougar days and
give an estimate of what this artist might sound like in his mid to late
fifties - the sounds on this album are a fair estimation of what you
might guess he would sound like. He has his rustic, american roots
throughout the tracks, yet the songs have enough punch to somewhat rock
as well as you might expect of someone of his years. One of the
strongest songs on here, The Americans is about as close to a
follow-up to Pink Houses from 1983's Uh-Huh as your going to find, yet it's fresh enough
to stand on its own merits.
The album has quite a variety in terms of its messaging and themes. Low
and behold, he's actually quite optimistic on several of these songs,
and even seems to be maybe a tad regretful of much of the anger that
penetrated many of his early records. As mentioned, there's plenty of
bitterness here, but it's done quite beautiful - if that's even
possible. Jim Crow is a wonderful statement of the ugly
persistence of racism, that although not quite as transparent,
Mellencamp still smells its stench. Rural Route is a bit of
depressing piece about all things wrong, but the sparseness of the song
adds to its bite and he succeeds there as well.
Sadly, this album is probably the most remembered for "the song in the
Chevy commercial" (Our Country). Mellencamp stated he was only
trying to get his songs heard by people - since radio simply didn't
play artists of his age on the airwaves anymore. I'm sure he's
regretting his decision with the obvious and unfortunate overkill of the
particular commercial. It's too bad, since it is a fine song. I would
vote for the last song (that's actually a "hidden" track), Rodeo
Clown as the best of the lot. Yes, it's yet another political stab
at those oh-so-dirty Republicans - George W. Bush, in particular. But
it's done well, and sounds very much like it could have been written and/or recorded by The Rolling Stones.
The only song that doesn't do much for me is Ghost Towns Along the
Highway which has a good theme lyrically, but its a bit stuck
musically. Everything else here is worthy of his very best.
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