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No Better Than This
 
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No Better Than This

John MellencampAudio CD
4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)

Price: $11.27 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
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MP3 Download, 13 Songs, 2010 $9.49  
Audio CD, 2010 $11.27  
Vinyl, 2010 $19.30  

Listen to Samples and Buy MP3s

Songs from this album are available to purchase as MP3s. Click on "Buy MP3" or view the MP3 Album.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

Samples
Song Title Time Price
listen  1. Save Some Time To Dream 4:30$0.99 Buy Track
listen  2. The West End 3:57$0.99 Buy Track
listen  3. Right Behind Me 4:00$0.99 Buy Track
listen  4. A Graceful Fall 3:20$0.99 Buy Track
listen  5. No Better Than This 3:12$0.99 Buy Track
listen  6. Thinking About You 3:28$0.99 Buy Track
listen  7. Coming Down The Road 4:44$0.99 Buy Track
listen  8. No One Cares About Me 6:11$0.99 Buy Track
listen  9. Love At First Sight 4:36$0.99 Buy Track
listen10. Don't Forget About Me 3:13$0.99 Buy Track
listen11. Each Day Of Sorrow 2:35$0.99 Buy Track
listen12. Easter Eve 6:29$0.99 Buy Track
listen13. Clumsy Ol' World 3:28$0.99 Buy Track


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Biography

John Mellencamp is the all-American small-town boy grown-up and his music reflects his life spent in the heartland: roots-rock, country and folk with garage rock sensibilities. His lyrics are frequently liberal and democratic and touch on issues such as racism, patriotism and the needs of farmers and small-town folk.

Mellencamp's sixth studio album American Fool (released as John Cougar) gave him… Read more in Amazon's John Mellencamp Store

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Frequently Bought Together

No Better Than This + Life Death Love & Freedom (Advd) (Dig) + Freedom's Road
Price For All Three: $34.33

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  • Usually ships within 6 to 9 days.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
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  • Life Death Love & Freedom (Advd) (Dig) $9.96

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  • Freedom's Road $13.10

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Product Details

  • Audio CD (August 17, 2010)
  • Original Release Date: August 17, 2010
  • Number of Discs: 1
  • Label: Rounder / Pgd
  • ASIN: B003NWS5DQ
  • In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
  • Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #654 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

In an age of auto-tuned, computerized recordings, John Mellencamp's approach on his Rounder debut, No Better Than This, is refreshing. The entire album was recorded with Mellencamp and his band all playing live in one room using a 55 year-old Ampex tape recorder and just one vintage microphone. Legendary producer T Bone Burnett captured the stunning thirteen new Mellencamp originals at three historically important locations: Sun Studio in Memphis, TN (where Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis all first recorded); the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, GA (the oldest Black church in North America, dating to 1775); and in Room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, TX (where Robert Johnson made his first recordings in 1936). The songs on No Better Than This reflect classic American musical traditions including blues, folk, gospel, rockabilly, and country, while addressing such themes as the need for hope, the nature of relationships, and narratives that recount extraordinary occurrences in everyday life. Mellencamp says of the album, "It was absolutely the most fun I've ever had making a record in my life. It was about making music - organic music made by real musicians - that's heartfelt and written from the best place it can come from."

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
70 of 72 people found the following review helpful
Don't Let Me Miss Anything August 17, 2010
Format:Audio CD
With "No Better Than This" John Mellencamp deepens the rich, intimate simplicity of his last record, focusing on strong song craft. Recorded in mono, the album is disarmingly warm and inviting, giving the songs room to breathe with lo-fi, unadorned arrangements. T-Bone Burnett once again takes up production duties.

This is not an album that will ship a million records, but it is ripe for an audience looking for hearty Americana.

As time soldiers on so too does Mellencamp's persona. Like his contemporary Bruce Springsteen, he has become something of a retrospective malcontent with his 60s creeping up on him. He still harbors the restless spirit of a much younger man, calling out for social justice and pondering life's big questions straightforwardly.

In the heartbreaking, matter-of-fact "The West End," for instance, he proves himself a first-rate poet as he magnifies the vicious circle - the "broken promises" - that keep the oppressed immobile in contemporary society.

"For my whole life I've been down in the West End/It sure has changed here since I was a kid/It's worse now - look what progress did/Someone lined the packers out - I know who that is."

He also ponders the possibility of a better existence beyond mortal life on "A Graceful Fall" with a cynical eye:

"'Cause I'm sick of life, yeah, it's easy to do/When everything is so hard has been handed to you/Yeah I'm sick of life, it's been lost, it's been found/I will see you in the next world if there is really one."

The subject matter is not always harrowingly heavy, of course. Mellencamp waxes poetic on finding euphoria in life's most affirming moments in the upbeat title track and lead single, even though a bittersweet sense of urgency peaks out through the song's sunny surface - after all, time passes quickly.

"Give me clear vision and don't let me miss anything," he swiftly sings

Could Mellencamp have launched a commercially successful career with an album like this? Of course not. That does not discount it.

Whether he cannot shake pessimism in the face of life's obstacles ("No One Cares About Me"), explores the potential for a more fulfilling existence ("Save Some Time to Dream") or revels in the mystery of what cannot be changed ("Clumsy Ol' World") Mellencamp remains thoroughly and remarkably engaging throughout "No Better Than This."

He writes story songs that immediately grab and speak to people of all walks of life- the essence of American music.
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42 of 45 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Remember when John Cougar was the next David Bowie and T Bone Burnett was a guitar player in Dylan's "Rolling Thunder Revue"? Doesn't seem like all that long ago to me. John Cougar became John Cougar Mellencamp and finally just plain John Mellencamp. He went from "heartland rock" to roots rock and now he's made it all the way back to the roots of rock. T Bone has had a solo career that critics and devout fans sing the praises of. Then a little movie called "O Brother Where Art Thou" suddenly made him the closest he'll ever be to a household name. More importantly, he proved to the recording industry that record buyers would embrace roots music.
"No Better Than This" was recorded by John and T Bone during John's off days from a minor league baseball park tour he was doing with Bob Dylan and Willie Nelson. Recorded in mono, T Bone and John used places like Sun Studios and The First African Baptist Church in Memphis, the first African Baptist church in North America dating back to before the Revolutionary War. Also used was room 414 of the Gunter Hotel in San Antonio, Texas where Robert Johnson first recorded for Brunswick Records. "No Better Than This" is a live record with real musicians that feels real and sounds absolutely terrific. With "Freedom Road" and "Life, Death, Love and Freedom", it marks the high point of an American folk rock trilogy that shows John Mellencamp hasn't become a nostalgia act. Indeed, he may just be hitting his creative stride. An amazing piece of work.
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15 of 17 people found the following review helpful
His best in quite a while. August 17, 2010
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
John Mellencamp has lately turned to folk/blues music, the likes of Woodie Guthrie, Robert Johnson, etc. This has, in many ways, been a fortuitous career move: he has crafted meaningful music that has delved into the heart of both Americana and humanity. However, it's also created albums that, while elegant and magnificent from an artistic standpoint, have been almost painful to listen to--music so dark and haunting that it must be taken in small doses.

NO BETTER THAN THIS is something of a breather, though not a passive one. Its lyrics are just as important and beautiful, but they are accompanied by a country/folk backbone that makes even the most downtrodden lyric ("I'm sick of life 'cause it's lost its form/I'll see you in the next world if there is really one") almost pleasant to listen to. Not that everything here is tears and frowns; "Save some time to dream/Because your dream might save us all," he croons in the opening number, and elsewhere (the title track, for instance) he seems relaxed and contended.

It's a false contentment, of course; even at his happiest, Mellencamp can't help but question the world around him. "Gee, it's a clumsy old world," he sings in the final track (and concludes with a wry chuckle); Mellencamp, like most of the great singer/songwriters before him, is in love with that clumsiness, with the imperfection of human nature. NO BETTER THAN THIS is a marvelous album; it's fun, it's catchy, and it's meaningful. Will it top the charts? No. But Mellencamp has more important things on his mind than record sales.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Save Some Time to Zzzzzzzzz
This Mellencamp album much like all his other albums since after 1998 is made to please himself -- not his fans (less the fan boys, of course). Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jonathan
Just a shadow
of his former self. Sad to say.

"But nothing lasts forever
Your best efforts don't always pay
Sometimes you get sick and you don't get better
That's when... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Victor da la Tnalag
Brings back memories
I love this CD. Though I have not listened to music exactly like this before it brings back memories of childhood car rides with the AM radio playing. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Allen S. Kearns Jr.
Very good music.
A can of beer in one hand and a fishing rod in the other but I won't catch anything just sitting by the creek with my eyes half open and a smile.
Published 8 months ago by Brad
One of his best
I'm not going to rehash what others have already said, but this is truly one of John's best albums. I've followed him since the beginning and have enjoyed seeing him develop,... Read more
Published 9 months ago by Guitarzan
Curveball with sweet results
At first I thought, "What/who the heck is this?" Then the album grew on me as I repeatedly listened to it while stuck in commuter traffic. Read more
Published 12 months ago by Brian Quinn
great album
This is definitely Mellencamp's best album in a long time. The sound is very unique - read up about it on wikipedia and you'll see why. Read more
Published 13 months ago by drawkward
back to the blessed basics
if you happen to have a fondness for stripped-down rootsy american music, not overly earnest, just really freaking good, well, as you can tell i think you'll like this album. Read more
Published 15 months ago by smoky
Takes you back in time
I've listened to the lyrics closer on this album more than anything I've ever heard. I love how John chose to record on an old tape machine. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Zachary Andrews
Ain't that America, for you and me?
There are more than enough track-by-track reviews of this one, so I don't plan to offer the same in this review. Read more
Published 16 months ago by Mike
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