Mojo (UK)

John Mellencamp

Sad Clowns & Hillbillie­s REPUBLIC. CD/DL/LP

- Mark Blake

US roots rocker’s almostcoun­try duets album.

Country music and John Mellencamp have been a good fit ever since he first dabbled on 1987’s The Lonesome Jubilee. Thirty years, three marriages and one heart attack later, these 13 songs come with several lifetimes’ worth of experience. Five are duets with country royalty Carlene Carter, while the swaggering single Grandview partners him with ’90s-vintage Nashville star Martina McBride. Mobile Blue and Battle Of Angels are the sort of chippy working-man anthems that powered fine ’80s-era albums such as Uh Huh and Scarecrow. But it’s on the Mellencamp/ Carter duets Indigo Sunset and the tough, self-questionin­g What Kind Of Man Am I that it all shifts up a gear, while Easy Target rounds everything off with scathing commentary on trigger-happy America. Mellencamp broke a long dry spell with 2014’s Plain Spoken. Sad Clowns & Hillbillie­s suggests he’s not done yet.

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