{"id":965,"date":"2010-08-16T10:45:27","date_gmt":"2010-08-16T17:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=965"},"modified":"2010-08-16T10:46:32","modified_gmt":"2010-08-16T17:46:32","slug":"john-mellencamp-on-the-rural-route-7609","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2010\/08\/john-mellencamp-on-the-rural-route-7609\/","title":{"rendered":"John Mellencamp + On the Rural Route 7609"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"On<\/a>BOX SET REVIEW<\/strong><\/p>\n

John Mellencamp<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the Rural Route 7609 <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

[Mercury\/Island\/UMe]<\/p>\n

When it comes time for the box-set treatment, most artists are content to line up a few discs\u2019 worth of hits and rarities and let \u2019em fly. John Mellencamp is not like most artists. On the Rural Route 7609<\/em> is a four-CD collection that sets out to tell a story all its own, tracing connections among its songs and emphasizing its author\u2019s current attitudes and concerns as much as his history. Search all you want for crowd favorites like \u201cHurts So Good,\u201d \u201cPaper in Fire\u201d and \u201cWild Night\u201d\u2014they\u2019re nowhere to be found. (For those, seek out the terrific 2004 double-disc compilation Words & Music: John Mellencamp\u2019s Greatest Hits<\/em>.) Some of the hits that do turn up here (\u201cRain on the Scarecrow,\u201d \u201cAuthority Song,\u201d \u201cLove and Happiness\u201d) are in re-recorded or demo versions that steer the spotlight away from the production and onto the songwriting. The assemblage carefully teases out thematic strands; the first disc plunges headlong into the topic of mortality, the second looks outward to social issues, the third offers nuanced character sketches and the fourth delves into matters of the heart. Along the way, the set makes a defiant argument for Mellencamp\u2019s often-overlooked latter-day work\u2014fully half the tracks here were recorded during the last decade. Mellencamp holds forth in a track-by-track commentary in the liner notes inside the elegant packaging, making his own arguments for his creations. On the Rural Route 7609<\/em> is as thoughtful, willful and knotty as the man himself.<\/p>\n

\u2013 Chris Neal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOX SET REVIEW John Mellencamp On the Rural Route 7609 [Mercury\/Island\/UMe] When it comes time for the box-set treatment, most artists are content to line up a few discs\u2019 worth of hits and rarities and let \u2019em fly. John Mellencamp is not like most artists. On the Rural Route 7609 is a four-CD collection that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[196,219,562,80,564,563],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=965"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":968,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/965\/revisions\/968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=965"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}