John Mellencamp

John Mellencamp hits hardest when he leads with his heart instead of his head. While his
material was rarely as dumb as his detractors suggested back in the Cougar days, his more
self-consciously ambitious songcraft of recent years occasionally suffers from thematic
overreach. At their best, however, the powerhouse performances by Mellencamp and
band reduce the lyric sheet to filigree. Sound and sense find a common denomi... More >