(Mercury)
People who are familiar with John Mellencamp's twenty year career will notice a distinctive change on the artwork of his latest release, Mr. Happy Go Lucky - John is painted as a clown in a big top setting, with the cover and artwork designed to look like a circus. Once inside, what could surprise fans is Mellencamp's choice of co-producer - noted New York club DJ and producer Junior Vasquez.
The pairing of Mellencamp and Vasquez, which was first thought of when Junior did a remix for "Love and Happiness", brought together two men with totally different backgrounds - Mellencamp's guitar/rock, which expanded into other instruments such as violin and fiddle, and his huge hits such as "Jack and Diane" and "Pink Houses" - and Vasquez, who is renowned in New York City for his remixes, all night disc jockeying (at clubs such as the Tunnel and Palladium), and even his "own" songs such as "If Madonna Calls".
Those differences presented themselves in the construction of songs. Vasquez writes songs by "starting from the loop up, and here I am dealing with this acoustic folk song. Then Kenny (Aronoff) goes out and plays these big overheads and drums and it's like 'Where can I take it from there?'. I think John's main focus was to get a stronger bottom."
The first single, "Key West Intermezzo (I Saw You First)" has traces of Scarecrow's "Between A Laugh And A Tear" with a violin and Caribbean teaser tossed on the top. "Just Another Day" will instantly be recognizable to listeners - its addictive hooks bring to mind the most upbeat moments of previous records such as Big Daddy.
Some of the tracks do exhibit the differences that Vasquez brings to the table. "Emotional Love" is probably the closest Mellencamp will ever come to recording a street song - and was also not written by John, but by Mellencamp bassist Toby Myers. And, "Life Is Hard" could be a club hit with the right Junior remix.
It's likely that the people who know and recognize Junior Vasquez will stay far away from any Mellencamp release. That's unfortunate because Junior has enabled Mellencamp to venture slightly from his rock roots and flesh out a few songs with a street sound. Mr. Happy Go Lucky isn't all about Junior Vasquez - but Mellencamp's albums have now achieved a constant level, where people who have bought anything with his name on it in the last ten years know his consistent level of quality works, and have a fairly certain idea of what they're getting. Mellencamp's latest release twists those perceptions just a little.
