Sweet Revenge

by John Prine

Product Description:

Folk singer John Prine's third release, SWEET REVENGE, found the singer with a newfound confidence and determination. After receiving both plaudits and barbs from the critics for his previous two albums, Prine responded with a decidedly more aggressive stance. To this day, SWEET REVENGE stands as his most defiant-sounding album. By toughening up his folk and country roots palette with rock's harder edges, Prine proves he can scrap with the best of the heartland rockers.

Like Springsteen and Mellencamp, Prine is an everyman songwriter, albeit one with a more economical sense of song structure and wordplay. Whereas Springsteen favors over-the-top epics by way of bombast, Prine zeroes in on the heart of the matter with a few simple masterstrokes. The rebellious title track plunges towards the fickle hearts of critics with a snap of the fingers. The driving "Often Is A Word I Seldom Use" punctuates his sardonic attack with pumping horns. Ironically, the album's green thumb, a live acoustic-only "Dear Abby," became the breakaway single.