Monster Music & Movies

Reviews:

"John Fogerty rocks to his own particular rhythm. Over his 40-year recording career he's turned out a slew of enduring hits, both with Creedence Clearwater Revival and on his own, but Fogerty has marked it with a series of long absences, including the seven-year gap since his last studio album, Blue Moon Swamp. Yet Fogerty has the gift of timelessness, churning out music that's steeped with the gray dignity of tradition but doesn't necessarily sound old-or, perhaps, works because it sounds that way. Deja Vu All Over Again is certainly an apt title in that regard-its ten songs come off like a Fogerty career retrospective. The compelling, politically minded title track even uses the bassline from ""Have You Ever Seen the Rain?,"" while the grinning ""Honey Do"" (about a household chores list) sounds like a lost Sun Records gem. ""Radar"" and ""She's Got Baggage"" are fierce new wave relics, the latter with a particularly punky flavor, and ""Nobody's Here Anymore"" knocks off Dire Straits' signature sound-with the full validation of guest guitarist Mark Knopfler. ""Wicked Old Witch"" recasts Fogerty as the swampy ""Old Man Down the Road"" storyteller, and the thick, psychedelic hard rock of ""In the Garden"" is balanced by the gentle acoustic strains of ""I Will Walk With You"" and the back porch rootsiness of ""Rhubarb Pie."" Fogerty's been a lot of stylistic places over the years, and he revisits them, pleasurably, on his latest excursion. "