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Loved to madness or harshly criticized, "Mr. Happy Go Lucky" is an album for which there are no half-measures. Yet, years after its release, it remains a work that cannot leave you indifferent. Released in the fall of 1996 by a post-heart attack John Mellencamp, eager to rejuvenate his career, this album showcases an entirely new musical direction. His musical project is indeed very ambitious as it aims to blend his classic rock and folk style with electronic rhythms. Hearing the final result, this project is absolutely successful, at times thrilling for its modernity, but it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth of both critics and some of his audience.
To ensure this particular musical crossover develops and takes the desired form, the former Cougar calls upon Junior Vasquez, a well-known DJ in American dance music, for the album's co-production along with trusted Mike Wanchic. The final result is, for myself, full of charm, modern, laden with ideas capable of opening new horizons in rock music by blending different styles and sound cultures into an intriguing and vibrant melting pot. This does not mean that "Mr. Happy Go Lucky" is shamelessly danceable, predictable, and dangerously flirtatious with the dance floors of American clubs. Nothing could be more wrong. Indeed, this album offers a decisive shake-up to traditional rock and folk ballad theories by merging them with new musical dynamics such as the use of loops and effects borrowed from club music where dancing happens.
This union, completely new and unexpected for a traditional artist like Mellencamp, creates from scratch a complex, experimental, and dark hybrid where rock remains ever at the center stage. It's a work with a fundamental concept since each track is linked to another by a thin invisible thread that transforms "Mr. Happy Go Lucky" into a unique and sophisticated whole. From the initial "Overture", where in just under two minutes various musical movements of the album are presented, to the closing with the realistic "Life Is Hard", in which a melody with an enticing beat marries perfectly with a contagious dance groove, innovations abound and so does great music. Innovations like the spectacular "Jerry", a piece built on an obsessive percussive fabric born from hundreds of overdubs where Andy York launches into a dry and sharp guitar solo. Innovations like "The Full Catastrophe", an urban ballad where Mirian Sturm's violin fits perfectly with a series of sampled sounds. Innovations like the surprising "Emotional Love", a classic disco-soul piece composed for the occasion by bassist Toby Myers or the great "Mr. Bellows", a folk piece for the new millennium again dictated by an Andy York in a state of grace.
At other moments, we also find the John Mellencamp we are more familiar with. "This May Not The End Of The World" and "Circling Around The Moon" are typical but Vasquez's production makes them underground, unhealthy, and not without charm, while "Large World Turning" and "Jackamo Road" appear less elaborate and slightly more modest compared to the rest of the work. Lastly, we must mention the two singles "Key West Intermezzo" and "Just Another Day". These are two masterful pieces, among the best in Mellencamp’s production, which would not have been out of place on "Human Wheels". Two songs that appear mature and in which the musicians, first and foremost the great Kenny Aronoff, play to the best of their abilities.
Listening to "Mr. Happy Go Lucky", I repeat, cannot leave you indifferent. This album, certainly contradictory due to some of its musical choices at the arrangement stage, is yet another winning move by a serious artist always able to stay abreast with the changes of the times, while keeping the vibrant rock and folk traditions alive. This is why we can affirm without the slightest doubt that this work is courageous, exactly like its author.
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