Mail On Sunday (UK) - NBTT Review

[mellenheadinohio]

15 August 2010
Page 18
Circulation 2012741

by Adam Woods

3 out of 5 stars

Cantankerous, political and ruggedly unpretentious, American blue-collar rocker John Mellencamp hasn't always travelled well, and he hasn't had anything like a hit in the UK since Jack & Diane in 1982.

No Better Than This won't suddenly give him one, but it springs from an interesting concept:  13 songs captured in the most primitive fashion as various historically notable locations.  In every case, the locale colours the music.

The nine songs laid down at Sun Studio in Memphis, where Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash made their early hits, have an earthy rockabilly thwack.  Three respectful folk tunes were recorded at the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, the oldest black church in North America.  Right Behind Me, a spooked-out-guitar-and violin blues tune recorded in the Texas hotel room where bedeviled bluesman Robert Johnson cut his first songs in 1936, is equally apposite.

A nice idea, executed with taste.