John Mellencamp
Life Death Love and Freedom
Hear Music

If you’re expecting some variations on little ditties about “Jack and Diane,” then John Mellencamp’s latest album is not for you. This probing work is more cerebral than riff-and-beat driven, which isn’t to say there aren’t some songs here that, down the road, my well rank among classic Mellencamp numbers. 

Unlike Freedom’s Road, which harkened back in some spots to his hit-maker years of the ’80s and early ’90s, Life Death Love and Freedom (his first for Starbucks’ Hear Music through Concord) is a darker-toned album from the start, steeped in folk, blues, and country, along with elements of rock dynamics. The opening “Longest Days” ruminates on aging, as Mellencamp himself nears that 60 mark, while the 1950s-styled rocker “My Sweet Love” was an obvious choice for a single, though even this song is touched by bittersweet regret. He dips into the delta for “If I Die Sudden” and turns to tale of racial conflict in “Jena,” drawn from actual events in Louisiana, and the race theme surfaces again in “Young Without Lovers.”  

There are no Chevy anthems here, like the fine but more obvious “Our Country” from last year, though “Troubled Land” mines a swamp groove while warning of impending politic and social upheaval. As an artist who no longer needs to be concerned with charts and airplay that’s the province of lightweight pop and calculated rock, John Mellencamp carries on as a true elder statesmen of American music out of the heartland.

CSNY
Déjà Vu Live
Warner Bros.

When Crosby, Stills & Nash get together, it can often sound nice, warm, and inviting.  Then add Neil Young to the mix and it’s a whole different animal – snarling as well as sweet.  That was the case for the quartet’s 2006 Freedom Speech Tour, documented in this year’s new film CSNY/Déjà Vu. And while this audio release isn’t an exact soundtrack, it’s filled with some remarkable fire and passion from musicians who’ve been at well over 40 years now and could’ve just let younger generations pick up the mantle of political protest, but instead still cry out for change to bring a better world.   

Some CSNY classics are here in all their – to borrow from another Young album title – ragged glory, but it’s the material drawn from Young’s Living With War album that makes this set heated and full of agitation at times. The first five songs get right to it – The Iraq War and a U.S. administration with no regard for the people it’s supposed to serve – including the opening “What Are Their Names,” “After the Garden,” and the sing-along neo-cons hate, “Let’s Impeach the President.”

While there are no extended work-outs (Young always brings the best out of Stills), “Ships” is a cutting guitar dialogue, and the near-ancient-now “For What It’s Worth” gets a metallic blues revamp. Other standouts include “Looking for a Leader” and “Living with War,” as well as the enduring hope that colors “Teach Your Children.” 

Though there have been times that CSN – not Young, never Young – have coasted on their rock icon history, that’s not the case here, rising to the need for outspoken musical voices, no matter what the generation, to take a stand.