Big Daddy - John Mellencamp (1989)

Quality or nostalgia: was younger me onto something, or just on something?

I won this on cassette for being the first person to deliver a cold beverage to the DJ who was doing a remote at a record store we happened to be driving past.

Mellencamp has written a lot of good songs over the years. They all require a tolerance for country-style no-nonsense-ness and down-to-earth-ness or whatever. He’s maybe not as elegant as a Springsteen or Dylan, but he cuts to the bone sometimes with his stories of people trying to get through life as best they can.

This record is more of a country sound than his previous bluesy rock. He can whip the band back and forth between stately gothic country and a fierce roots rock attack. The rebellious attitude he showed off in the early 80s has worn away to a more world-weary patina. You get heartfelt ballads, whistful nostalgia, and some nervy high energy stuff as well.

So is it Quality or Nostalgia?

The more self-aware tunes like Pop Singer and JM’s Question are a little on the nose, but the good songs are still great.

His cover of the Hombres’ Let It All Hang Out is spot on.