The first thing that grabs the listener about John Mellencamp's No Better Than This is its sound: mono - recorded live to an Ampex 601 tape recorder circa 1955, with a single microphone without mixing or overdubs. It's warmth and presence are immediate and engulfing.
Mellencamp and T-Bone Burnett cut the album while on tour supporting, Life Death Love and Freedom, Mellencamp's celebrated precursor. This album was cut in some very famous locales: First African Baptist Church in Savannah, GA (the first African American Christian churchin North America), Sun Studios in Memphis, and in Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, TX, where Robert Johnson recorded "Stones in My Passway" in 1936.
While Mellencamp's last album was celebrated for its wonderfully crafted songs, it nonetheless reflected Burnett's dictatorially heavy-handed production style. This set feels far more like the artist. The songs are rooted in country, rockabilly, folk, country-gospel, and even a rawer Midwestern rock that is Mellencamp's brand.
The band is equal parts his standard road group and Burnett's studio crew, but the latter plays more of a supporting role than a guiding one here; this set, with its brilliantly pruned songwriting is Mellencamp at his focused best.
He may be looking back at some earlier styles of music that influenced him here, but the songs on No Better Than This feel invigorated, unfettered, and melodically and lyrically astute. He possesses an independent streak in abundance here; he is making music only for himself now, and, as a result, is in a league of his own.
No Better Than This proves that good songs need very little to communicate instructive narratives and complex emotions, and that primitive recording methods are still sometimes the best ones.
1. Save Some Time To Dream
2. The West End
3. Right Behind Me
4. A Graceful Fall
5. No Better Than This
6. Thinking About You
7. Coming Down The Road
8. No One Cares About Me
9. Love At First Sight
10. Don't Forget About Me
11. Each Day of Sorrow
12. Easter Eve
13. Clumsy Ol' World
