Come on Come on

 (54 customer reviews)

Mary Chapin-Carpenter built her career largely on public radio airplay for her folky acoustic guitar-based songcraft. This album exploded her into the country mainstream, thanks to the huge hits "Passionate Kisses", "I Feel Lucky" and lesser hits "I Take my Chances" and "He Thinks He'll Keep Her". But while country radio may have loved her for awhile, it quickly forgot about her and the reason why is between the hit tracks: Carpenter has more in common with classic country singers than with the current batch of forgettable pop-country heard on the radio these days.

Carpenter is all about songs: Writing the sentiments of an educated, mature woman who's not afraid to make political statements that buck Nashville's (i.e. she's a feminist and a bit to the left) conservatism. All but two of the songs here were written or co-written by her.

HIGHLIGHTS:

The hits deserved to be. Carpenter finds the catchy heart of Lucinda Williams' "Passionate Kisses" and...Read more

At the time, this was her most versatile disc to date. It really moves away from the country feel of her previous two releases, and, at its heart, is folk-pop. Her unabashed feminist side shows on I Feel Lucky and He Thinks He'll Keep Her, up-tempo rockers. Her mid-tempo songs, like Walking Through Fire, I Take My Chances, and Passionate Kisses, have the same unapologetic bluntness - she's her own woman, and proud of it. Her voice also shines on delicate ballads like Come On, Come On, I Am A Town, and Only A Dream. She has a superb talent for painting vivid pictures: I see the empty room in Only A Dream, and I see her walking on the tracks in I Take My Chances. The only song out of place here is Not Too Much To Ask, a banal country ballad, but other than that one clunker, this disc is a delight.

A friend of mine recently asked me to compile my list of the 10 greatest CDs of all time. I thought, "How in the world can I decide?" And then I thought, "simply list the 10 CDs that you play most frequently." MCC's "Come On Come On" quickly made the Top Ten. Sometimes one can't explain why. This is definitely a play-through-and-don't-skip-any-tracks CD. "Only a Dream" still haunts, even though I've heard it a million times. I like MCC because she isn't like any other.