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Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed albums.
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Life Death Love and Freedom
by John Mellencamp
John Mellencamp latest album was produced by T Bone Burnett who also developed a new audio format promised to help the album sold sound like master tapes.
LABEL: |
Hear Music |
RELEASE DATE: |
15 July 2008 |
DISCS: |
1 disc |
GENRE(S): |
Rock |
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
80
Billboard
Searching for a ray of lyrical light in John Mellencamp's latest treatise on the state of the world proves consuming—but largely fruitless. That, however, makes the album all the more compelling.
80
Rolling Stone
Mellencamp teamed up with producer T Bone Burnett to create a whole new sound--a set of textured, atmospheric folk and country blues that adds up to one of the most compelling albums of Mellencamp's career.
80
The New York Times
It’s a brave album in the way it sets aside all his old consolations.
80
Boston Globe
Eschewing any concept of "radio ready" and singing with a gruff immediacy, Mellencamp tackles all of the titular concepts on this folk- and blues-based material with a sense of liberation that is keenly palpable.
80
Hartford Courant
A moody, stark and hypnotically discomfiting assortment of ruminations.
80
PopMatters
Make no mistake, Life Death Love and Freedom is a serious work of art.
80
NOW Magazine
Those who’ve come to associate him with theme songs to bad car commercials should check his reawakening on this late-career turnaround.
80
Paste Magazine
Blunt and stubbornly engaging, it may be Mellencamp’s most candid effort in years.
75
The Phoenix
For the most part Life Death Love and Freedom makes good on--and somehow makes entertainment of--its sober sense of purpose.
75
Entertainment Weekly
Though he may be contemplating mortality, Mellencamp, with his weathered snarl, still sounds remarkably alive.
70
All Music Guide
Musically, Mellencamp seems to have been listening closely to the first five Bob Dylan albums, paying more attention to the first of them, the largely traditional, folk-blues-styled Bob Dylan, than the last, the folk-rock "Bringing It All Back Home."
60
Slant Magazine
His world-weariness feels legitimately earned rather than affected keeps Life from being just an exercise in pessimism.
58
The Onion (A.V. Club)
With producer T-Bone Burnett stripping his rootsy jangle down to a monochromatic, almost lo-fi rumble, Life Death Love And Freedom practically demands to be called "Mellencamp's darkest yet," but it's really just relentlessly downbeat and one-note.
50
Blender
By now he's decided he'd rather be Bob Dylan--recent Dylan, that is, devoted to phlegm-clogged blues-codger grumbles about how he's ready for his pine box. Producer T Bone Burnett proves a willing accomplice. [Aug 2008, p.88]
The average user rating for this album is 9.1 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
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