Uh-Huh found John Mellencamp coming into his own, but he perfected his heartland rock with Scarecrow. A loose concept album about lost innocence and the crumbling of small-town America, Scarecrow says as much with its tough rock and gentle folk-rock as it does with its lyrics, which remain a weak point for Mellencamp. Nevertheless, his writing has never been more powerful: "Rain on the Scarecrow" and "Small Town" capture the hopes and fears of Middle America, while "Lonely Ol' Night" and "Rumbleseat" effortlessly convey the ...
Read More
Uh-Huh found John Mellencamp coming into his own, but he perfected his heartland rock with Scarecrow. A loose concept album about lost innocence and the crumbling of small-town America, Scarecrow says as much with its tough rock and gentle folk-rock as it does with its lyrics, which remain a weak point for Mellencamp. Nevertheless, his writing has never been more powerful: "Rain on the Scarecrow" and "Small Town" capture the hopes and fears of Middle America, while "Lonely Ol' Night" and "Rumbleseat" effortlessly convey the desperate loneliness of being stuck in a dead-end life. Those four songs form the core of the album, and while the rest of it isn't quite as strong, that's only a relative term, since it's filled with lean hooks and powerful, economical playing that make Scarecrow one of the definitive blue-collar rock albums of the mid-'80s. [Scarecrow received an expanded deluxe reissue in 2022, one boasting a new remix, liner notes by Anthony DeCurtis, and a disc of bonus material. Split between rough mixes, writer's demos, and outtakes, the bonus material emphasizes Mellencamp's connection to '60s rock and R&B through covers of the Drifters' "Under the Boardwalk," James Brown's "Cold Sweat," and Otis Day & the Knights' "Shama Lama Ding Dong," along with an original called "Carolina Shag" that follows in the same vein. The other unheard song is "Smart Guys," a send-up of Mellencamp's friend, the late music critic Timothy White.] ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
Read Less