Track Listing

1. Longest Days
2. My Sweet Love
3. If I Die Sudden
4. Troubled Land
5. Young Without Lovers
6. John Cockers
7. Don't Need This Body
8. A Ride Back Home
9. Without A Shot
10. Jena
11. Mean
12. County Fair
13. For The Children
14. A Brand New Song

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #547 in Music
• Released on: 2008-07-15
• Number of discs: 1

Album Description
The man who has been called `the poet laureate of the interstate' has reached deep into his soul, bringing forth an album of unparalleled maturity powered by a piercing musical vision. Produced by T Bone Burnett ("O' Brother Where Art Thou," Robert Plant, Allison Krauss)

Two disc package includes CD and high quality audio DVD.

People en Español
After Freedom’s Road, his first album in five years, John Mellencamp made it clear why he had such loyal fans. He’s made a career out of making himself vulnerable, with lyrics that undeniably come from the heart, and aided by his guitar, he generates a mood that’s more Americana melancholy than pop. After a year of being somewhat of a recluse, Mellencamp is back with 14 tracks filled with anguish, pain, resentment, and frustration. In songs like "If I Die Sudden," "Don’t Need This Body," and "Troubled Land," the singer-songwriter seems to be more like the Americana equivalent to Damien Rice rather than Bob Dylan, to whom he’s been compared to before. It’s a disc that, as my friend says, you can listen to while kicking a can and walking the streets. --Ernesto Sánchez (People en Español )

Después de Freedom’s Road, su primer álbum en cinco años, John Mellencamp dejó en claro porqué tiene un séquito de fans tan leal. Durante su carrera se ha desvivido por mostrar su vulnerabilidad y al mismo tiempo proporcionar confort al escucha con líricas que innegablemente salen de su corazón, y con inseparable guitarra cuyo sonido lo coloca más en el melancólico género americana que en el pop. Un año después de su regreso tras su auto reclusión, Mellencamp vuelve con 14 temas llenos de angustia, dolor, arrepentimiento y enojo. En temas como "If I Die Sudden," "Don’t Need This Body," y "Troubled Land," el cantautor parece ser la respuesta en Americana a Damien Rice más que a Bob Dylan, con quien muchas veces se le llega a comparar. Eso no tiene nada malo, es un disco, como diría un amigo, para "patear latas mientras caminas escuchándolo" a gusto. --Ernesto Sánchez (People en Español )

About the Artist
Mellencamp has characterized the album as a collection of "modern electric folk songs." With backing from his legendary touring band, the album's 14 tracks were recorded at his studio in Bloomington, Indiana and mixed in Los Angeles with Burnett behind the boards for all of the sessions. Mellencamp cites Burnett's production as key to "finding the soul of each song." As far as signing to Hear Music is concerned, he noted, "In today's business environment, each artist needs to pursue his own path and determine what works best. For me, Hear is the right way to go for this album. I'm glad to be working with a team of open minded people who seem to be interested in what the music is about and what it sounds like."

"John Mellencamp is true original, a writer and performing artist of passion, talent and spirit who in the course of his exceptional career has maintained a unique and distinctive voice in his songwriting," said Glen Barros, president & CEO of Concord Music Group who oversees the Hear Music label. "The songs on this record are perhaps his most intimate, honest and poignant of his career. We are delighted to have this opportunity to work on `Life, Love, Death and Freedom.'"

The album will be the first ever release in the ×ÏÄÅ (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 resonance, warmth and presence that has been realized with CODE is unprecedented in the digital era. 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. The standard CD is included to answer all possible compatibility questions. 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."

Mellencamp toured the U.S. and Canada towards the end of last year and had been performing at least half of the songs heard on "Life, Death, Love and Freedom" for concert audiences who have been extremely receptive to the new material. Earlier, he previewed several of the songs in New York at the annual Farm Aid benefit concert and at a benefit for New York Housing Works. He was a surprise guest performer at San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival earlier this fall and joined T Bone Burnett on stage to preview some of the album's songs. In connection with the album's release, Mellencamp is embarking on a month-long tour that kicks off in Philadelphia on July 8.

Mellencamp was inducted earlier this year into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and this past December received the ASCAP Foundation's Champion Award in recognition of the his outstanding use of music in the service of humanity. His musical collaboration with author Stephen King, Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, is in the workshop stage with a full production anticipated within the next two years.

Customer Reviews

Maybe Mellencamp will finally win another Grammy!
Mellencamp is my favorite solo artist. I like and own everything he has ever done, so I am probably not the most objective reviewer of his work.

Mellencamp has really come into a new realm of creativity over the past few years. This record demonstrates an amazing amount of depth, range, and musical mastery.

I liked his last album (Freedom's Road) better, but comparing the two would not be entirely fair. They are very different records all around. Freedom's Road was more "Mellencampy." This one was meant to be more solemn and flat out sad.

My favorite tracks are Longest Days and A Ride Back Home. Longest Days may well be one of the top ten best songs he has ever written. My least favorite tracks are John Cockers and County Fair.

John won his first and only Grammy back in 1982. Since then he has been nominated a dozen more times, without a win. I think Life, Death, Love & Freedom has Grammy written all over it. I will be suprized if it doesn't win one.

Suicide Songs and Murder Ballads
John Cougar digs in for his deepest album since Big Daddy, and it is one of the best he's ever done. It completely lives up to the title of "Life Death Love & Freedom," focusing on the mid-life crisis of rockers who see their years increase and their country in decline. Trust me, this ain't your Mr. Happy Go Lucky. It's a lot closer to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska or James McMurtry Just Us Kids.

Helping a great deal is producer T-Bone Brunette, who once guided Elvis Costello and more recently Robert Plant and Alison Krauss into similar turf. He keeps the production austere and minimal, sometimes no more than two instruments. "Longest Days" opens the album with a hush, then builds into the Bo Diddly beat of "My Sweet Love." But more often than not, there is a bluesy melancholy that underpins the songs, with Mellancamp sounding vulnerable and assured ("This getting older ain't for cowards" he snarls at the start of "Don't Need This Body").

He also works up a fire on the two political diatribes, "Jena" and "Without a Shot." "Jena" got exposed early on after the infamous Louisiana incident, but feels heavy handed now. "Without a Shot," however, takes on complacency and wonders why we let the best of us get "used up by corruption." He almost answers that in "John Cockers," who seems to be the man Diane married 30 years ago, but took off with the kids and left Jack with a "little (pink?) house on a dusty road." These are desperate people in crummy situations, like the unfortunate man in "County Fair" or the defeated soul in "A Ride Back Home."

All is not trouble and doom here, as Mellencamp has a pair of affirmative songs. "Mean" (as in "could you please stop being so...") is a delight, easily one of his best, and the aforementioned "My Sweet Love" was added at Mellencamp's wife's insistence, as she thought the CD needed a little more cheer (and she was right). The album closes on an optimistic note, with Mellencamp rising from the realization that "the trouble with the future, it always stays the same" to the hope that those to come will find knowledge and purpose.

For those who have followed Mellencamp through the early days, hearing "Life Death Love & Freedom" will seem like a natural progression from Scarecrow and The Lonesome Jubilee, while some who only think of ""Hurts So Good" might miss out. But if you're getting up there in years and don't mind a little Woody Guthrie or Pete Seeger in your musical diet, then John Mellencamp's latest will probably make your favorites for the year.

Life Death and Freedom
John Mellencamp's newest CD, "Life Death and Freedom" ended up being much better than I thought it would be. Wonderful instrumentals and song variety. The more I listen to them the more they grow on me. I was afraid some of the songs would be too slow, but they weren't. Five Stars!