John Mellencamp - No Better Than This

Anyone who may have doubted that John Mellencamp's recent retrospective box set On the Rural Route 7609 would indelibly mark a significant turning point in the famed Hoosier rocker's career need only take a listen to his new August 17 album No Better Than This (Rounder). Recorded using a single microphone and an Ampex tape recorder half a century old by legendary producer T-Bone Burnett, Mellencamp's thirteen new raw and ragged songs manage to toss in every stylistic influence of traditional, uniquely American music: country and folk ("Clumsy Old World"), bluegrass and rockabilly ("Coming Down the Road"), blues and gospel ("Right Behind Me"), all elements of the roots-driven rock that has come to define, particularly in recent years, the Mellencamp sound.

Recorded on the fly, in a variety of historical locations (including Memphis' Sun Studios), No Better Than This puts Mellencamp's basic songwriting skills in unique perspective. "I am done being a rock star,” he says in a recent interview. “I have no interest in that, in having the biggest concerts. I have only one interest: to have fun while we’re doing this and maybe have something that somebody might discover." Whether or not Mellencamp's decision is more economic than philosophical is pretty much a moot point (ask Springsteen, Petty, Seger, Miller). What he's managed to do over the last decade is admirable: keep moving, evolving, exploring, even revisiting his roots, as he does here. If 7609 is a bookend, No Better Than This wipes the slate clean and resets the odometer.

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John Mellencamp - "No Better Than This" (from the album No Better Than This)

John Mellencamp - No Better Than This preview sampler

Banner Photo: Mark Cornelison for The New York Times

John Mellencamp/T-Bone Burnett