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No Better Than This
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No Better Than This Image
Metascore
78

Generally favorable reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.1

Universal acclaim- based on 7 Ratings

  • Summary: T-Bone Burnett returned to produce the singer-songwriter's latest album which was recorded while Mellencamp was touring the Southern states.
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. The A.V. Club
    91
    The direct, spare No Better Than This-Mellencamp even eschews stereo-has a timeless sound and songs that do right by their classic blues, rock, and country inspirations.
  2. Entertainment Weekly
    91
    Compelling and heartfelt, No Better Than This feels tantalizingly timeless.
  3. American Songwriter
    90
    It's about people, and Mellencamp continues to write and sing about them better and better with each passing year.
  4. AllMusic
    80
    No Better Than This proves that good songs need very little to communicate instructive narratives and complex emotions, and that primitive recording methods are still sometimes the best ones.
  5. The New York Times
    80
    Yet behind the period arrangements and the antique haze of the production, they're still Mellencamp songs. They can be wry and plainspoken, like the waltzing tall tale "Easter Eve," or earnest and overreaching, like the attempted workingman's parable "The West End."
  6. Slant Magazine
    70
    No Better Than This works as well as it does because it plays to Mellencamp's strengths. His genuine empathy for rural living and his occasional hell-raising both come through in equal measure.
  7. Uncut
    40
    The likes of "The West End" and "Thinking About You" are unobjectionable, but mostly have the effect of reminding that there are Steve Earle albums you could be playing. [Nov 2010, p.94]
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User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 2
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 2
  3. Negative: 0 out of 2
  1. Nick14
    Aug 26, 2010
    9
    As good an album as Mellencamp has ever made, if not the best. Wonderful sound, wonderful songs. The record is indeed 'haunted' as T-BoneAs good an album as Mellencamp has ever made, if not the best. Wonderful sound, wonderful songs. The record is indeed 'haunted' as T-Bone Burnett says in his liner notes, by the ghosts of so many, including the Sun musicians and Robert Johnson and others who recorded at the same historic locations this album was made at. But it is so much more - the album has manged to capture the past and present it so it is meaningful for today and probably the future too. A record for the ages.… Expand
  2. MrMadrew
    Sep 18, 2010
    7
    Its really cool and simple, which is a nice break these days. The only thing that loses points is that a lot of the songs have pretty muchIts really cool and simple, which is a nice break these days. The only thing that loses points is that a lot of the songs have pretty much the same melody and so it gets tiring and repetitive after a while. But its really, smooth, raw, natural and good to the ears.… Expand