John Mellencamp

The early albums of John Cougar, as he was known in 1982, will always recall an innocent, sun-dappled America where young love and dreamy bravado held sway. American Fool is a testament to Mellencamp's powers as conjurer of this myth. He enlisted the help of hot-handed producer Don Gehman, who would go on to record R.E.M's Life's Rich Pageant among other roots classics, and the result is a perfectly sequenced line-up of hits. "Hurts So Good," "Jack and Diane," and "Hand To Hold Onto" is a batting order worthy of an All Star team, while "Thundering Hearts" could easily bat clean-up.

John "Cougar" Mellencamp can't help it. All he has to do is open his mouth and out oozes
insincerity, the snake oil of patent imitations of Bruce Springsteen and Bob Seger. Or for
good measure, he'll pour on a little Tom Petty or Graham Parker. It's not just Cougar's
hoarse, choked tenor that sounds overfamiliar; his secondhand serenades to teenage
titillation at the car wash and the Tastee-Freez have also been heard elsewhere.... More >