"This recording smokes in its new found glory via a new remastering. You will absolutely love the way the drums of Kenny Aronoff march in lockstep with the driving bass of Toby Myers. The icing on the cake is the cutting sounds of David Grissom on lead guitar and the rhythm chukka-chukka of Mike Wanchic. This is a great album to put in the CD deck of your auto and CRANK from start to finish. Mr Mellencamp has never been better. This album is an outright steal at the price I paid for it-$9.98! The perfect album to blow off steam. 10 stars is still too little.
An American Masterpiece by a great artist."
Mellencamp Returns To His Rock Roots Here
The Footpath Cowboy | Kingston, NY United States | 08/12/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"With WHENEVER WE WANTED, John Mellencamp drops the "Cougar" altogether and returns to his rock style and party-oriented lyrics from his early days, while continuing his deeper lyrical concerns. The remastering on this CD adds depth and definition to every single song, and the bonus cuts are quite interesting. Any serious Mellencamp fan must own this one."
Rocking Hard
Thomas Magnum | NJ, USA | 06/26/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"After the quiet, folky sounds of Big Daddy, John Mellencamp(now dropping the Cougar from his name), came back hard with WheneverWe Wanted To. On this album he combines the hard rock edge ofAmerican Fool with the socially relevant lyrics of his mid-80'salbums. "Get A Leg Up" is a hard rocker that is a distantcousin to "Hurts So Good". "Love &Happiness", "Crazy Ones", "Melting Pot" andthe title track are all excellent songs. "Again Tonight"was a single, but it doesn't work well in the album as it sounds likeit was stuck in as an afterthought. The bonus track is a remix of "Love And Happiness" that doesn't really click.
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It rocks, but Mellencamp is at his most bored
Daniel Hayes | 08/27/2009
(3 out of 5 stars)
"I guess this album was better than I thought originally, but no hits from this album, or at least none of them got any airplay in Philadelphia where I was living at the time. I feel that Mellencamp was searching for a direction to take this album, but never seemed to get it going anywhere. "Love and Happiness" is supposedly about the Gulf War, and what America was going through which is a dramatic turn from his "Rah-Rah America" attitude. Here he's sounding embittered, and angry, and let me tell you those attitudes can only get you so far, and then people will forget about you. "Need A Little Love" sounds like a "Oh Come On People" song like he wants us to get back to the attitude of the 60's. The rest of this album is forgettable, and it shows that Mellencamp wasn't out of his slump yet."
Excellent album
J. Martin | Pittsburgh, PA | 02/08/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Excellent album - Give a listen to "Whenever We Wanted", "Melting Pot", "Love and Happiness", "Get A Leg Up", and "Now More Than Ever" - you won't be disappointed"