623. John Mellencamp / Scarecrow. 1985. 2.5/5

The fact that I own this album at all is perhaps a miracle, and certainly testament to the power of the music that crowded the radio airwaves in my high school years. In that mid-1980's period there was four albums that dominated the landscape for those of us in high school - Dire Strait's Brothers in Arms, Bruce Springsteen's Born in the U.S.A, Bryan Adams' Reckless, and John Cougar Mellencamp's Scarecrow. No one who was in school during those years could deny that they did not know these albums, or the songs they produced. Whether you liked them or not, everyone still knows the words and tunes to all of them. And while in many cases it is the obscure unknown songs on an album that can end up being the best and favourite tracks, here it is the singles released from the album that are the obvious stand-outs.

The album starts off with "Rain on the Scarecrow". a song whose underlying guitar bridge I have always liked, providing the basis for the song's framework. It is an understated yet dramatic beginning, unusual for most opening songs. The short and sweet "Grandma's Theme" follows, featuring Mellencamp's grandmother, before moving swiftly into another of the album's singles hits, "Small Town". This is another mid tempo song dominated by the country style guitar and Mellencamp's moody vocals. "Minutes to Memories" continues in this vein, leading into another of the popular singles releases "Lonely Ol' Night".
Following the singles laden first half of the album, the second half is... well... not quite a wasteland, but it is a barren landscape. While Mellencamp's most popular and well-known songs are at best country rock at a solid tempo, there seems less inspiration, less drive, less urgency on these tracks. OK, they are boring. There isn't much there to keep those that aren't a hard core fan interested.
The final song on the album, "R.O.C.K. in the U.S.A." has almost always annoyed me, but not because of the track itself, which is the most upbeat on the whole album. The reason it always twisted my nerves in high school was because all of these teeny bopping kids would jump around singing the song with glee, shouting the chorus at the top of their voices. Yeah - but we live in AUSTRALIA not the USA! Why would that annoy me so much? Because I was 15 and believed they should change the lyrics to "R.O.C.K. in Oz-tray-li-ya!" It didn't matter that I knew what the song was about and why it was titled and chorused so, it was still annoying. Great to be an opinionated teenager. LOL.

I haven't heard a lot of stuff from Mellencamp apart from this album - sure, there are the other singles out there that everyone knows, but as to listening to his other albums, well I've had other priorities. Country rock, of which category his music falls into, is not really my scene. As I said at the start, I own this and know this because of its prominence during my high school years. Certainly I still don't mind a lot of it and appreciate it for what it is, but I've never had any inclination to move beyond it and listen to any of his other work.