John Mellencamp Freedom's Road released

Freedom’s Road John Mellencamp

Released: January 23, 2007 Peak: 5 US, -- UK, 145 CN, -- AU, 14 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): 0.30 US, -- UK, 0.43 world (includes US and UK) Genre: rock/Americana

Tracks: Click on a song title for more details. Someday Ghost Towns Along the Highway The Americans Forgiveness Freedom’s Road Jim Crow Our Country Rural Route My Aeroplane Heaven Is a Lonely Place Rodeo Clown * * unlisted track Total Running Time: 48:46

Rating: 3.494 out of 5.00 (average of 19 ratings) Quotable: “Heart-worn, ragged roots rock tomes about struggle, determination, and the possibility of redemption.” – Thom Jurek, AllMusic.com Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album “Something has been lacking in Mellencamp efforts…since Human Wheels (which never got a fair hearing). Artists get to experiment, and willingly populist artists – which he most certainly is – can get trapped. He tried to bring his audience along to where he was musically, but seemingly never solidified that place himself.” AM With Freedom’s Road, Mellencamp finds a new identity – that of a grizzled, contemplative folk-rock hero for the 21st century – a modern day Woody Guthrie. Freedom’s Road “is perhaps the darker side of Lonesome Jubilee, and takes the small-town vision of Scarecrow and Big Daddy and fans it out. The music is a rootsy, excellent blend of electric and acoustic guitars, fiddle, big fat drums, and lots of space.” AM The country band Little Big Town serves up backing vocals on eight of the songs on the album. The album is about “pleasure, desire, …love, disillusionment, big drums, rollicking guitars, and above all an accessible kind of passion.” AM “Freedom’s Road is not merely a new (or another) John Mellencamp album, but the work of a populist artist at his very best; he’s spinning his heart-worn, ragged roots rock tomes about struggle, determination, and the possibility of redemption. He’s not promising anything like a foregone conclusion at this point, but it’s there if we want it bad enough. Song-wise, this is a stronger album from Mellencamp than we had any right to expect, and an excellent from-the-cradle album when we need it most.” AM Mellencamp wanted the album “to have a 1960s rock sound while still remaining contemporary, and he feels that goal was achieved.” WK He said, “We wanted to make sure that it had the same feeling of some of the great songs from the '60s but also had the message of today and had the backbeat of today. I think we came up with a pretty timeless sounding album.” WK The Songs Here’s a breakdown of each of the individual songs.

Someday John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: 2/25/2007 (single), Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 15 AA, 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.21 streaming About the Song: Mellencamp gets help from “country superstar quartet Little Big Town (who really are to their genre what Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac was to rock and pop – and look to cross over to that side, too) on backing vocals throughout. They add a depth of field on cuts like Someday, with its staggered, layered harmonies, ringing electric guitars, and lost-in-America vision.” AM

Ghost Towns Along the Highway John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.26 streaming About the Song: On “Ghost Towns Along the Highway” “Mellencamp is looking far outside Indiana here, and when he sings ‘Well, our love keeps on movin’/ To the nearest faraway place/ I guess no one believes it’s/ Ghost towns along the highway/ Ghost towns along the main highway,’ a forlorn fiddle glides ragged above the electric six-strings and the drums shuffle to keep up in the void.” AM

The Americans John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: 4/21/2007 (single), Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 55 CW, 29 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.19 streaming About the Song: “The Americans and ‘Our Country’… are the natural extensions of ‘Little Pink Houses.’ These are songs of determination, of definition of what it means to be an American from the Midwest in an era when America seems to be losing sight of itself. These two tracks have easily identifiable hooks and refrains, and with those big choruses, one can see the video footage from all across the country rolling by on a TV screen, or feel the vibe out on your neighborhood street, that this is the way it should be: open, honest, willing, and, above all, tolerant. There is no Ugly American syndrome in either of these songs: ‘If you ever need some help, come and look my way/ ‘Cause I try to be here for everyone/ I’m an American/ And I respect your point of view...and I wish you good fortune with whatever you do.’ This is no rallying cry, it’s a simply declaration and exhortation to be the citizens of the world this country has always seen itself as (and was seen as by so many) – at least until 9/11.” AM

Forgiveness John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.17 streaming

Freedom’s Road John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.15 streaming About the Song: “The collision of spooky old-time folk, country, and blues that meet in rock drenches the title cut with its double-time snare, edgy Rickenbacker guitars, funky middle-eight bass break, and infectious group chorus. Mellencamp sings it straight: he doesn’t have to shout or growl: ‘Sometimes there’ll be rape/ Sometimes there’s murder/ Sometimes there’s darkness everywhere.../ There’s information, but no one cares.../ Freedom’s road can get narrow.../ If you’re looking for the devil/ He’s out there, on freedom’s road.’” AM

Jim Crow John Mellencamp & Joan Baez

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 21 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.14 streaming About the Song: Mellencamp “digs for accountability in Jim Crow, with Joan Baez on duet vocals. With a spooky string section echoing in the background, a lone electric, and layered acoustics, he sings ‘Look what Jim Crow’s done/ Gone and changed his name/ Don’t know what he’s calling himself these days/ But he’s still acting the same,’ and Baez counters ‘You can call it what you want/ But it’s still a minstrel show.’ The guitars get angrier, rising as do the strings countering them; it’s a cut full of drama, shame, and an indictment to repentance with the blind weight of the history of America’s injustice to its own.” AM

Our Country John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: 11/11/2006 (single), Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 88 BB, 16 AC, 39 CW, 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.32 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: “Our Country” was the most high-profile song from Freedom’s Road due to its use in ads for Chevrolet trucks. It’s “the best hook Mellencamp has written in ages.” AM While the song may be “overly optimistic and idealistic” AM “the TV commercial makes the track seem more romantic than it is.” AM The song is “a statement of not just rights and dreams, but responsibilities.” AM It deals with “protectionism and paranoia” AM and “the frightening ambiguity that comes from…becoming the melting pot of the world.” AM The song was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Solo Male Performance.

Rural Route John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.17 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: John Mellencamp told Rolling Stone’s Anthony DeCurtis that “Rural Route” came about after “a phone call from my mother, who said that the body of a 10-year-old girl who’d been raped and killed had been found not far from where my parents live.” SF Mellencamp said the last verse “prays for forgiveness, because nobody could have done such a gruesome thing if they had been in their right mind. When you live out here in the middle of nowhere, it's easy to get lost.” SF The song title became the basis of the name for Mellencamp’s 2009 box set On the Rural Route 7609.

My Aeroplane John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.12 streaming

Heaven Is a Lonely Place John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: -- Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.06 streaming About the Song: “Heaven Is a Lonely Place” is a “scorcher that intersects American music at the crossroads of Johnny Rivers, J.B. Lenoir, Gene Vincent, the Staple Singers, and Mellencamp’s own ‘R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A.’” AM

Rodeo Clown John Mellencamp

Writer(s): John Mellencamp Released: Freedom’s Road (2007) Peak: 1 DF Click for codes to charts. Sales (in millions): -- Airplay/Streaming (in millions): -- radio, -- video, 0.11 streaming

Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Song: This is an unlisted track that ends Freedom’s Road. The song is a seething attack on George Bush and the part he played in initiating the Iraq War. While the country band Little Big Town sang backing vocals on eight other songs from the album, they opted to skip this song because, according to John Mellencamp, “They were afraid that country radio would hear about it, and that would be the end of it for them.” SF Mike Wanchic and Elaine, Mellencamp’s guitarist and then-wife respectively, sang the chorus along with others in the room at the time. SF

Resources/References: AM AllMusic.com review by Thom Jurek SF Songfacts.com page for “Rural Route” SF Songfacts.com page for “Rodeo Clown” AM Wikipedia page for Freedom’s Road Related DMDB Pages: First posted 6/20/2010; last updated 2/15/2026.

 

The Strokes released Is This It

Is This It The Strokes

Released: July 30, 2001 Peak: 33 US, 2 UK, 50 CN, 5 AU Sales (in millions): 1.0 US, 0.6 UK, 2.05 world (includes US and UK) Genre: garage rock revival

Tracks: Song Title [time] (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Is This It [2:35] The Modern Age [3:32] (1/29/01, --) Soma [2:37] Barely Legal [3:58] Someday [3:07] (9/14/02, 17 MR, 27 UK) Alone, Together [3:12] Last Nite [3:17] (11/10/01, 5 MR, 14 UK, 47 AU) Hard to Explain [3:47] (6/25/01, 27 MR, 16 UK, 66 AU) New York City Cops [3:36] Trying Your Luck [3:27] Take It or Leave It [3:16] All songs written by Julian Casablancas. Total Running Time: 36:28 The Players: Julian Casablancas (vocals) Albert Hammond Jr. (guitar) Nick Valensi (guitar) Nikolai Fraiture (bass) Fabrizio Moretti (drums)

Rating: 4.231 out of 5.00 (average of 25 ratings) Quotable: “A pop version of the Velvet Underground with totally 21st-century lyrics,” ZS it was “crucial in the development of other alternative bands and of the post-millennial music industry.” – Wikipedia.org Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: “If there’s one album…[from the 21st century] you could say ‘saved’ rock and roll, this might be it.” GL “When Y2K arrived, MTV VJs and saccharine-pop enthusiasts told us rock ’n’ roll was dead. But then, out of nowhere, came this back-to-basics guitar-driven record made by five leather-clad hipsters (before that was a thing).” GQ Rolling Stone’s Joe Levy said their debut album was “the stuff of which legends are made” WK while NME’s John Robinson called it “one of the best debut LPs by a guitar band during the past 20 years.” WK “The Strokes didn’t so much pick it up off the floor but rather thrashed around in the gutter a bit, and aside from the rhythmic brilliance that splashing about in the mire produced, they very importantly made it cool again.” FO “The Strokes took the world by storm with their underground and lo-fi sensibilities, paving the way for bands like The White Stripes and The Yeah Yeah Yeahs to take their similar sounds right to the top of the music world.” GL “It takes a keen eye on culture and a depth of originality to seize the seething passions of youth, thrives on naïve recklessness, colour it in the sound of the New York rock music that inspired you in the first place, and make the sort of art that usurps the status quo and spawns a new generation of its own.” FO These “mod ragamuffins” RS “mixed Velvet Underground grime and skinny-tie New Wave jangle” RS with “late-‘70s New York punk.” AMG The music was “sometimes acidic, always full of great melody,” RS and marked by “off-kilter guitar solos,” EW “primitive tom-tom rhythms (shades of the Velvets’ Moe Tucker),” EW and “an insistently chugging backbeat.” AMG On top of it all were the “raw, world-weary” AMG and “half-buried vocals (à la ‘Louie, Louie’)” EW and “attitude-heavy slurring” EW of singer Julian Casablancas. The Strokes intentionally sought out “the raw, muddy sonics of garage-band 45s.” EW Casablancas said they wanted to sound like “a band from the past that took a time trip into the future to make their record.” WK Electronica duo Daft Punk said the Strokes “followed in the footsteps of the Velvet Underground, Television, Suicide, the Ramones, and Blondie, creating the fresh, distinctive sound we’d been waiting for over a decade.” GQ THe Strokes updated “the propulsion of the Velvet Underground and the jangle of Seventies punk with Casablancas’ acidic dispatches mixed to the fore and ringed with distortion like he was singing from a pay phone.” RS’20 However, “the Strokes don’t rehash the sounds that inspire them,” AMG but “remake them in their own image.” AMG “They inspired a ragged revolt in Britain, led by the Libertines and Arctic Monkeys.” RS’11 The Strokes became “the most hyped band [in the UK] since Oasis in the mid 1990s,” TB the New Musical Express “placed the Strokes at the head of its ‘new rock revolution.’” TB In response, “haters threw whatever they had at them” SY scoffing that these scruffy posers were actually straight out of “the exclusive Dwight School in Manhattan” TB and decked out in “expensive leather and denim.” SY However, “the Strokes prove to be one of the few groups deserving of their glowing reviews.” AMG This was “the rare case where the advance buzz was warranted.” EB Is This It showcased a band that was more than just a handful of pretty faces and privileged New York City brats.” PM The band’s “daily twelve-hour practices are…blindingly evident” SY on an album marked by “unfussy arrangements and skillful approach to pop songcraft.” PM “As it stands, the hype proved well deserved” PM as the Strokes “surpassed all expectations with the release of this instant garage-rock classic.” EB “The measure of it now is that it’s just about the work of the century where many people listen to the whole album more often than a single song from it.” FO “Is This It” The subject matter behind their songs “reflected their own early-twenties lust for life” AMG and made “the timeworn themes of sex, drugs, and rock & roll and the basic guitars-drum-bass lineup seem new and vital again.” AMG The title track “sets the joys of being young, jaded, and yearning to a wonderfully bouncy bassline.” AMG It also “features a simple, metronomic drum line, a recurring feature in the rest of the record. Containing one of the slowest tempos, Is This It is the Strokes attempt at a ballad.” WK “The Modern Age” “The band mix swaggering self-assurance with barely concealed insecurity on The Modern Age,” AMG “a rant about the oddness fo modern life.” WK It “includes a prominent guitar riff accompanied by a complementary drum line. Its staccato verse is followed by an upbeat, singalong chorus and a technically difficult guitar solo.” WK “Barely Legal” The band “reveal something akin to earnestness on Barely Legal,” AMG which “concerns the subject matter of a girl who has just arrived at the age of consent.” WK It also “containes some of the album’s softer guitar melodies inspired by Britpop as well as drumming patterns that evoke the sound of primitive 1980s drum machines.” WK “Alone Together” / “Trying Your Luck” “Alone, Together continues the sexual theme by dropping hints about cunnilingus” WK and is “driven by a staccato rhythm, and climaxes first with a guitar solo, then a repeat of the central guitar hook.” WK That song and “Trying Your Luck develop the group's brooding, coming-down side.” AMG The latter is “the album’s mellowest point…and shows more melancholic vocals.” WK “Last Nite” Last Nite is another “guitar-driven song, but leans towards pop music influences. At its core, there are reggae-inspired rhythm guitar lines played by Hammond, and studio noise effects. The rhythm section plays simple interlocking notes and beats.” WK “Hard to Explain” / “Soma” The Strokes combine “their raw power and infectious melodies on Hard to Explain, arguably the finest song they've written in their career.” AMG “Explain” and Soma both contain “processed drum tracks using dynamic range compression and equalization studio techniques to make them sound like a drum machine.” WK The latter “incorporates jerky rhythms and starts and ends with the same guitar and drum chimes.” WK “New York City Cops” “Explain” and New York City Cops incorporate “spliced ad-libbing extras from Casablancas.” WK The latter is a “pastiche of rock band Aerosmith,” WK which also “revamps [Iggy Pop’s] ‘Lust for Life.’” AMG “ “Someday” / “Take It or Leave It” Meanwhile, “Someday “is infused with rockabilly elements and interlocking guitar lines, …a recurrent element of Is This It.” WK That song and “Take It or Leave It capture the Strokes at their most sneeringly exuberant,” AMG both managing to “overcome the muddy, low-budget production.” EW The latter “is the only song in which Hammond used the bridge pickup of his Fender Stratocaster guitar.” WK Notes: Despite being New York-based, the Strokes’ Is This It was released in the U.K. a month earlier than in the U.S. In between, New York’s World Trade Center towers were destroyed by terrorists and the less than flattering New York City Cops was pulled in favor of B-side When It Started. In addition, the initial cover photograph was deemed too sexualy explicit for the U.S. market and replaced with a “microscopic close-up of particle collisions.” WK

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for The Strokes AMG All Music Guide review by Heather Phares EB East Bay Times (12/9/2009). “Here Are the Top 25 Albums of the Decade” by Jim Harrington EW Entertainment Weekly (6/18/2007). “The New Classics: Music” FO Far Out (7/16/2021). “The 21 Best Albums of the 21st Century” by Jack Whatley, Joe Taysom, and Tom Taylor GL Goliath “10 Great Rock Albums of the 21st Century” GQ GQ (8/5/2014). “The 21 Albums from the 21st Century Every Man Should Hear” PM PopMatters.com (10/28/2020). “The 100 Best Albums of the 2000s” RS Rolling Stone (2003). “500 Greatest Albums of All Time” RS’11 Rolling Stone (7/8/2011). “100 Best Albums of the 2000s” RS’20 Rolling Stone (9/22/2020). “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time” SY Stylus (3/22/2004). “Top 101-200 Favourite Albums Ever” TB Thunder Bay (2005). Albums: The Stories Behind 50 Years of Great Recordings. Thunder Bay Press; San Diego, CA. Page 301. WK Wikipedia ZS Zagat Survey (2003). Music Guide: 1,000 Top Albums of All Time. Coordinator: Pat Blashill. Music Editor: Holly George-Warren. Editors: Betsy Andrews and Randi Gollin. Zagat Survey, LLC: New York, NY. Page 221. First posted 3/29/2008; last updated 4/28/2022.

Mariah Carey’s debut album reached #1

First posted 2/25/2008; updated 12/2/2020.

Mariah Carey Mariah Carey

Released: June 12, 1990 Charted: June 30, 1990 Peak: 111 US, 3 RB, 6 UK, 11 CN, 6 AU Sales (in millions): 9.0 US, 0.3 UK, 17.0 world (includes US and UK) Genre: pop

Tracks: Song Title (date of single release, chart peaks) Click for codes to singles charts. Vision of Love (6/2/90, 1 US, 9 UK, 1 AC, 1 RB, gold single) There’s Got to Be a Way (6/1/91, 54 UK) I Don’t Wanna Cry (4/6/91, 1 US, 1 AC, 2 RB) Someday (1/19/91, 1 US, 38 UK, 5 AC, 3 RB, gold single) Vanishing All in Your Mind Alone in Love You Need Me Sent from Up Above Prisoner Love Takes Time (9/15/90, 1 US, 37 UK, 1 AC, 1 RB, gold single) Total Running Time: 46:44

Rating: 3.948 out of 5.00 (average of 27 ratings) Awards: (Click on award to learn more).

About the Album: In 1988, eighteen-year-old Mariah Carey launched her efforts at a music career. She started as a backup singer for Brenda K. Starr, who noticed her “gifted voice” WK and took her to a record industry gala to try to convince a label executive to listen to her demo. Tommy Mottola signed her to Columbia, who were looking for “a young and very talented female vocalist to rival Whitney Houston…or a pop star to match Madonna.” WK Columbia got its wish. Powered by four Billboard Hot 100 #1 songs, Mariah Carey’s “extremely impressive debut” AMG was one of the most successful first-album outtings in music history. She became the first artist since the Jackson 5 to have the first four singles top the U.S. charts. The album “is replete with smooth-sounding ballads and uplifting dance/R&B cuts. Carey convincingly seizes many opportunities to display her incredible vocal range…With this collection of songs acting as a springboard for future successes, Carey establishes a strong standard of comparison for other breakthrough artists of this genre.” AMG Vision of Love, the lead single, was “regarded as one of the strongest debut singles by a female artist.” WK It was “featured during her television debut on The Arsenio Hall Show, an appearance noted by many as her formal introduction to stardom.” AMG The song was followed by the ballad Love Takes Time, a late edition to the album. She was told it was a “career-maker” WK and needed to be added to the first album even though the album was already completed and being mastered. It did make it on the original cassette and compact disc, but the title got left off the first copies printed. Ben Marguiles, who helped her write the song, said the song “was strong enough to stop the pressing;” WK he speculated that they “had to throw away a few hundred copies.” WK The third single, “the energetic Someday,” AMG was one of the four songs featured on the demo tape Carey gave to Mottola. Ric Wake, one of the producers assigned to the album, said, “I loved that song right from the beginning.” WK It was helped to #1 by a performance at the 1991 American Music Awards. A week before the song hit #1, Carey hit the top spot on the Billboard album chart. The fourth single, and fourth #1 from the album, was I Don’t Wanna Cry. When working with her on the song, producer Narada Michael Walden described Carey as “very shy” WK but also noted how professional she was for someone her age WK and that she had an astonishing voice. WK

Resources and Related Links: DMDB encyclopedia entry for Mariah Carey AMG All Music Guide review by Ashley S. Battel WK Wikipedia