Entertainment Weekly gave the record an "A" rating, stating: "John Mellencamp's last album was more or less straight-ahead rock, but there's something dark and unshaven about his new one, 'Human Wheels.'

Oddball instruments — pennywhistles, mandolins — pop up like disordered wraiths over gritty drum tracks that sound like they were recorded in a cluttered cellar.

[5] The title track was borne out of a poem Mellencamp's friend George Green wrote as a eulogy he delivered at the grave site upon the death of his grandfather.

"[6] Mellencamp gave additional insight into the writing process of "Human Wheels" in a 2004 American Songwriter interview, saying: "I wrote that song without a guitar or anything.

And whether you hear the influence in Tone Loc or Arrested Development, Sly remains an under-credited inspiration in '90s rock 'n roll.

When we got to the hotel, it looked like Sodom and Gomorrah, with dozens of well-dressed businessmen all around the area picking up prostitutes and going wild.

On the reflective "Sweet Evening Breeze," Mellencamp said in the liner notes to his 2010 box set On the Rural Route 7609: "Can you name another song that sounds like that?

Mercury Records utilized a unique (for the time period) two-tiered singles campaign to promote the album.