sat 14/12/2024

Album: John Mellencamp - Strictly A One-Eyed Jack | reviews, news & interviews

Album: John Mellencamp - Strictly A One-Eyed Jack

Album: John Mellencamp - Strictly A One-Eyed Jack

It's not all right Jack

Mellencamp's own Expressionist-style art adorns the sleeve

“I didn’t even know what I was writing about. It was just sent to me”, John Mellencamp has said of Strictly A One-Eyed Jack, his first album in five years.

Lauded by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and Nora Guthrie, who sees in his work echoes of her father Woody, and Bruce Springsteen, who is writ large on this his 24th studio album, Mellencamp really does seem to contain multitudes. From the first notes of “I Always Lie to Strangers”, Jack’s opening track, you’re hooked, grabbed by the lapels, and happily held close. The style and mood are reminiscent of Dylan’s Time Out of Mind, his great late Nineties album, while Mellencamp’s voice mostly sits somewhere between Dylan and Tom Waits, with a touch of Steve Earle.

Like many singer-songwriters of his generation – though at 70 he’s a relative youngster – Mellencamp is reckoning with death. Still, there can be no compromises: “I don’t grovel and I don’t bend/I don’t give a fuck where you stand” he sings in “Streets of Galilee”.

A determined activist who’s lent his voice to Vote for Change and Iraq vets among other causes, and who, from its inception, has been a key figure in Farm Aid, Mellencamp offers his austere view of the world where "there's so many crying, and that's all my eyes can see." It’s intimate, straight-talking, a folk-say cautionary tale: “the end of the rainbow, turns out it’s not somewhere/ Look around it’s everywhere for anyone who cares”. It’s One-Eyed Jack speaking throughout: looking back, looking forwards, thinking aloud, pontificating – perhaps allowing Mellencamp to go places he hasn’t previously gone. John Steinbeck would be proud.

There are three cuts with Springsteen: the single “Wasted Days”, all distinctive tight harmonies and great guitar solos - think Traveling Wilburys; “Did You Say Such a Thing”; and “A Life Full of Rain”. “Gone Too Soon”, bluesy and elegiac, is perhaps the album’s highpoint with its scrumptious, keyboards, horns and percussion and a vocal in which Mellencamp seems to be channelling Louis Armstrong.

It’s a well-paced album, a reminder in these pick ‘n’ mix days that thoughtful artists do indeed give great thought to how a suite of songs comes together. As a whole, in its entirety, is how we should listen to Strictly A One-Eyed Jack. It’s a profound album that deserves no less. The heart of Americana.

Liz Thomson's website

Add comment

The future of Arts Journalism

 

You can stop theartsdesk.com closing!

We urgently need financing to survive. Our fundraising drive has thus far raised £33,000 but we need to reach £100,000 or we will be forced to close. Please contribute here: https://gofund.me/c3f6033d

And if you can forward this information to anyone who might assist, we’d be grateful.

Subscribe to theartsdesk.com

Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 15,000 pieces, we're asking for £5 per month or £40 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.

To take a subscription now simply click here.

And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters