John Fogerty: Revival : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

John Fogerty's first album of new songs since he resolved his long emotional and legal war with his past in Creedence Clearwater Revival is essentially history repeated, and not just in the no-frills drive and corroded-treble guitar breaks. Fogerty wrote his greatest Creedence hits about a broken America polarized by income, war and moral arrogance, and the bad news here is that most changes have been for the worse. "Don't You Wish It Was True" rolls along like "Proud Mary," with an undertow of frustration. "Long Dark Night" and "I Can't Take It No More" are enraged, direct hits on the reigning fortunate son. But Fogerty's documentary roots rock was always rebel music, a counterculture of factory-floor politics via Hank Williams and Dale Hawkins. Revival is no rerun. It is Fogerty getting back to work -- and finally acting on his own advice, in a song he's actually named after his old band: "You can't go wrong if you play a little bit of that Creedence song."