Customer Reviews

Whenever We Wanted

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This recording smokes in its new found glory via a new remastering. You will absolutely love the way the drums of Kenny Aronoff march in lockstep with the driving bass of Toby Myers. The icing on the cake is the cutting sounds of David Grissom on lead guitar and the rhythm chukka-chukka of Mike Wanchic. This is a great album to put in the CD deck of your auto and CRANK from start to finish. Mr Mellencamp has never been better. This album is an outright steal at the price I paid for it-$9.98! The perfect album to blow off steam. 10 stars is still too little.
An American Masterpiece by a great artist.

I have always liked the variety of hits that John has released over the years, but this is the only album of his that I own. From front to back this is his best effort in my opinion. He returns to his rock roots, but with a more mature approach. After all the experiments with various sounds, instruments, and styles, this album sounds as if he and his band locked themselves in a garage and just jammed. Simple in-your-face guitars and good lyrics all the way through. If you only want to spend money on 2 of John Mellencamp's catalog, get his greatest hits and then get this one.

After the quiet, folky sounds of Big Daddy, John Mellencamp(now dropping the Cougar from his name), came back hard with WheneverWe Wanted To. On this album he combines the hard rock edge ofAmerican Fool with the socially relevant lyrics of his mid-80'salbums. "Get A Leg Up" is a hard rocker that is a distantcousin to "Hurts So Good". "Love &Happiness", "Crazy Ones", "Melting Pot" andthe title track are all excellent songs. "Again Tonight"was a single, but it doesn't work well in the album as it sounds likeit was stuck in as an afterthought. The bonus track is a remix of "Love And Happiness" that doesn't really click.

With WHENEVER WE WANTED, John Mellencamp drops the "Cougar" altogether and returns to his rock style and party-oriented lyrics from his early days, while continuing his deeper lyrical concerns. The remastering on this CD adds depth and definition to every single song, and the bonus cuts are quite interesting. Any serious Mellencamp fan must own this one.

ITS GOOD TO HERE SOMETHING NEW. THAT SOUNDS LIKE SOMETHING OLD. THIS IS REAL ROCK . NOT THE SCREAMING HEAD BANG STUFF. I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THIS C.D. FOR A OVER YEAR. THANKS AMAZON!!!

I guess this album was better than I thought originally, but no hits from this album, or at least none of them got any airplay in Philadelphia where I was living at the time. I feel that Mellencamp was searching for a direction to take this album, but never seemed to get it going anywhere. "Love and Happiness" is supposedly about the Gulf War, and what America was going through which is a dramatic turn from his "Rah-Rah America" attitude. Here he's sounding embittered, and angry, and let me tell you those attitudes can only get you so far, and then people will forget about you. "Need A Little Love" sounds like a "Oh Come On People" song like he wants us to get back to the attitude of the 60's. The rest of this album is forgettable, and it shows that Mellencamp wasn't out of his slump yet.

Excellent album - Give a listen to "Whenever We Wanted", "Melting Pot", "Love and Happiness", "Get A Leg Up", and "Now More Than Ever" - you won't be disappointed

Whenever We Wanted is my favorite John Cougar Mellencamp album, ah... you can tell how old I am because I didn't say CD. Scarecrow is probably most peoples favorite and definately his most popular. It's good, and it has a nice mix of acoustic folksey songs and some rockers. But, Whenever We Wanted is ALL pretty straight-forward Rock! When John walked into the recording studio on that first day he must of been in a really good mood and proclaimed to the band members there "Boy's, It's time to Rock!" This thing never slows down. It's a great buy at less than $10. And don't be afraid of a used copy of the original 1991 release. There is not much difference between them sonically. In fact, when I bought the remaster and compared them, I decided to keep my old copy 'cause it sounded so good, and the local retail outlet only wanted to give me $1 for it. No way. Recommended to Mellencamp Fans who grew up and/or like Scarecrow, Uh-Huh, and American Fool.

If you prefer his Folk music and acoustic stuff (nothing wrong with that) you might not enjoy this as much. For example, I never could get into Big Daddy or Mr. Happy Go Lucky.

I made the mistake of loaning this CD to a friend and never saw it again. It's that good. I am a serious fan of Mellencamp's music. For my money this is his best work. Edgy and driven, yet still filled with Mellencamp's typical lyrical quality and ability to tell a story with emotion.

For me, John Mellencamp's always been a great, straight-forward, no-nonsense songwriter, who was also capable of creating incredibly thoughtful music at the same time.

"Whenever We Wanted" is a nice balance between the two - there's some great, harder-edged rock, and some more subtle material too... all of it done with heart - as you would expect.

Overall, you couldn't ask for a better rock album - great performances by the band, heart-felt vocals from Mellencamp, done with complete sincerity and soul, and some great songwriting. Mellencamp's fans are his fans for one real reason: the honesty comes shining through everything he does. And his uncompromising attitude towards creating quality music (that earned him the "Little Bastard" nickname) is evident here - his stamp's clearly "visible" on every song, and it's all done with a truckload of heart.