Even the brunettes get lucky sometimes : an authoritative rated list of albums by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Submitted by cramoukji on Tue, 02/08/2005 - 08:45
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- You're gonna get it (1978) (cruelly underrated this album saw TP&HB give their all in a fresh, biting way that they never caught again and yes, they defined the sound of the 80's two years before it happened - don't ask me, this is the best rock album ever!!) (SOT: Magnolia)
- Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (1976) (few debut albums, not of the 70's but of the whole history of rock music, managed to deliver so much especially if you consider that the british rock music press created the phrase New Wave to label this masterpiece) (SOT: American Girl)
- Wildflowers (1994) (a man, an artist, gets to his artistic best once in a lifetime and it's heartwarming that he did it with (though uncredited) help of his band and, well, Tom Petty was awarded on MTV for it) (SOT: Crawling back to you)
- Highway Companion (2006) (granted, the cover art is atrocious but TP's latest solo release is a clear watermark in his 30-year career boasting 12 wonderful tracks that beg to be played over and over again while wondering how Petty's songwriting can sound so easy yet be so intricate and complete) (SOT: Night Driver)
- Mudcrutch (2008) (looking past the human interest side of this whole project which alone makes this an all-of-its-kind album that only Petty and co could have pulled off, what you get here is an incredibly rejuvenated bunch of 50plussers delivering both bittersweet sounds of timeless r&r, c&w, r&b, americana reinvented and highly uplifting contemporary gut-grabbing foot-stomping singalongs that would fit in bowls & stadiums as well as smoke-filled dim-lit backrooms. This, my friends, is the album that could, in a world just a tad more perfect, bridge all musical generation gaps) (SOT: Crystal River)
- Let me up (I've had enough) (1987) (probably the most underrated of the Heartbreakers album and yet this is without a doubt their absolute best - the only album any "Heartbreakers without TP" fan would ever really need) (SOT: It'll all work out)
- Full Moon Fever (1989) (lots of successful singles and yet almost no filler (except for arguably two or three songs) besides those five unmissable songs) (SOT: Free fallin')
- Damn the Torpedoes (1979) (this is a turning point in the history of rock music for what the outcome of the Tom Petty vs. MCA Records trial brought to every singer-songwriter but it is not Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' best album) (SOT: Refugee)
- Long after dark (1982) (a time-tested piece of music that managed, once again as is the custom with TP&HB, to get every american rock band back on focus to what really mattered) (SOT: Change of Heart)
- Echo (1999) (Sad, gloomy, depressed, this is the "divorce" album (Tom's wife left him the year before the issue of this) and as is the fact with real artists (Dylan's Blood on the Tracks for instance), this brought incredibly lasting songs out of Tom Petty) (SOT: Accused of love)
- The last DJ (2002) (My, was Tom ever scolded for expressing his views of artistic freedom in a post-2001 world ruled by capitalistic interests!! Some songs lack freshness but none lack interest) (SOT: Joe)
- Hard Promises (1981) (ah, it starts out greatly and ends on bittersweet notes but it's all of another era. If we all lived in 1981, this would be the best rock album of the year) (SOT: A woman in love (it's not me))
- Into the great wide open (1991) (the input of Jeff Lynne destroys too much of what the Heartbreakers are supposed to be about and the balance between "rockers" and "folkers" is not wisely studied) (SOT: Two gunslingers)
- Southern Accents (1985) (this is TP&HB's equivalent to the Beach Boys' Smile album - a two-part concept piece that turned out to be a four-song album (Rebels, Accents, Spike, Dogs) with lots of filler provided by Dave Stewart and old studio sessions) (SOT: Dogs on the run)
- Songs and music from the o.m.p. She's the one (1996) (probably a mistake, this album is not much more than a collage of left over recording sessions from the Greatest Hits album, covers and various useless versions of otherwise good songs) (SOT: Walls (n°3))
Author Comments:
I added my choice of one stand-out track (SOT)from each album
'Anything That's Rock'N Roll'
uh ? anything that's rock and roll was a song out of the first album only released as a single in the United Kingdom... this is the single that prompted thez british rock press (New Musical Express and Melody Maker mainly) to coin the phrase "New Wave" to describe TP&Hb's brand of Rock 'n' roll... ok, what did you try to express by saying "Anything that's rock'n'roll" ? I have to point out that you americans have the luck of having Tom Petty 24/7 but we europeans have to fight to get him noticed over here... :)
This a good list, I agree with your rankings on what I've heard so far. Sounds like my next album to pick up is "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)"!
I'm glad this humble list of mine could help