John Mellencamp
Whenever We Wanted

One certainly cannot say that John Mellencamp is not an artist capable of surprising his audience with each of his record releases. Anyone who mistakenly judges him as sullen or disagreeable, a caricature or a pale imitation of Bruce Springsteen, has understood little or nothing about this proud and honest musician from Seymour, Indiana. Fortunately, throughout his brilliant career, the former Cougar has always been able to rely on his consistency, his rhetoric-free idealism, and a hardcore base of loyal followers who have supported every step of his human and artistic journey with unconditional enthusiasm and gratitude. If the eighties, after the artistic and commercial triumphs achieved with albums like "American Fool," "Scarecrow," and "The Lonesome Jubilee," concluded a bit quietly with the more reflective yet still successful "Big Daddy," the nineties show us a reinvigorated John Mellencamp. A Mellencamp rejuvenated by a period of reflection during which he took the time to fully dedicate himself to painting and to designing a film, "Falling From Grace." It is at this point that John definitively sheds the Cougar moniker and finds the desire to produce a pure and healthy rock'n'roll album. "Whenever We Wanted" is exactly that, and it's not insignificant. An adrenaline rush, the essential chords, the right songs, and a band that cuts like a sharp blade and in which every sane-minded guy would want to be.

Nothing new or original, according to the judgment of some hasty critics, just a Rolling Stones-style record as was the excellent "Uh-Huh" in the past. Naturally, "Whenever We Wanted" offers its listeners many reasons to be remembered. The opening "Love And Happiness" is hard-hitting and relentless, providing the perfect opening for the splendid tour that will follow the album's release, making stops even in Europe, excluding Italy, with a rock history concert at the Zenith in Paris. "Get A Leg Up", "I Ain't Ever Satisfied" and "They're So Tough" are tracks that Jagger and Richards could have easily written, while "Last Chance" and the title track offer the only reflective moments of the work. There are also that series of tracks that make a difference, those pieces that only true rock masters know how to include even in albums considered, wrongly, minor. "Now More Than Ever" is a superb ballad thanks to the band's performance and a refrain that could be the ideal slogan for a political campaign, practically a kind of "Pink Houses", or almost. "Crazy Ones" smells like rolling stones right from the beginning and is full of commanding breaks, while the beautiful "Again Tonight" concludes the album with a touch of class and elegance. "Whenever We Wanted" is essentially an album all about guitar, bass, and drums where the splendid six-string of Texas guitarist David Grissom, hailing from the Joe Ely Band, and the phenomenal drumming of the usual Kenny Aronoff shine. An opus that at the time of its release, 1991, received a good response and marked the forceful return of John Mellencamp to solid and sure rock'n'roll.