Graham Reid | | <1 min read
Possessing a guttural smoker's voice, John Mellencamp today lies between Tom Waits, a broken Dylanesque balladeer and a veteran country-blues singer, all cynical about this disappointing world.
Spare, poetic lyrics elevate The Streets of Galilee and the regretful ballad Gone So Soon, and he's blunt on Lie to Me:“ The churches and the preachers do, the history books and the teachers did it too. Lie to me, Lord knows I'm used to it”.
Fellow heartland rocker Bruce Springsteen joins him on three songs, notably Wasted Days: “How many minutes do we have here? We watch our lives just fade away to more wasted days”.
The album ends with the bleak A Life Full of Rain.
At 70 -- with three ex-wives, former lovers and a heart-attack behind him – Mellencamp has enough heartbreak and trauma to make decent art . . . and explore existential doubt, anger and disappointment.
A dark ride.
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You can hear this album at Spotify here.
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