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Tom PettyAlbums ReviewedFull Moon Fever (1989)Anthology Through the Years (2000) Wildflowers (1994) She's The One (1996) Full Moon Fever(1989)After a stint in the Travelling Wilburys, with Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne, Petty made a largely acoustic low key solo album with Lynne producing, quickly pieced together. While it's credited as a solo album, it still slots into his catalogue neatly alongside his other projects; most of the Heartbreakers appear on the album at some point, while its more relaxed sound is a precursor to the direction that the band would take in the nineties. And while it was intended as a side project, Full Moon Fever is one of the most prominent albums in Petty's canon; 'Free Fallin'' and 'I Won't Back Down' are two of the best known and often played songs in his catalogue. Both deserve their fame; 'Free Fallin'' has all the Petty trademarks - a tale of a loser over a simple and effective guitar riff, topped by an anthemic chorus - while 'I Won't Back Down' features some great slide guitar from Harrison and harmonies from Heartbreakers' bassist Howie Epstein. There's nothing else at the same level as these two songs, but pleasant acoustic ditties litter the album; the hit 'Yer So Bad', the cleverly titled 'A Heart With A Mind Of Its Own' and 'The Apartment Song'. The punchy rocker 'Runnin' Down A Dream' is also a Petty standard. A couple of songs with more sophisticated arrangements, notably 'Love Is A Long Road' and 'Zombie Zoo', are out of place but they're two of the stronger songs anyway. As good as Full Moon Fever is, there still isn't a compelling reason to buy it. Just grab a copy of either 1993's Greatest Hits or 2001's Anthology, which are pretty much essential and cover the high points from this album well. Everything on Full Moon Fever is pretty good, but if you're familiar with the major songs you're not missing out on too much. 
Anthology Through the Years(2000)The title of this is a little misleading as it only covers Petty's work up until 1993. Still, to be blunt, I don't see how anyone's CD collection can be complete without classic Petty songs such as 'Refugee', 'Even The Losers', 'The Waiting', 'Straight Into Darkness', 'Don't Come Around Here No More', 'Jammin' Me', 'I Won't Back Down', 'Free Fallin'', 'Learning to Fly' and 'Mary Jane's Last Dance'. The liner notes claim that Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are the greatest American rock band of the last twenty-five years, and while that statement may be excessive, Anthology presents a compelling case for Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers being the greatest American singles band of the last twenty-five years. The Heartbreakers are a great backing band, as best demonstrated in 'Don't Do Me Like That' where a potentially lame song is given strength by an excellent arrangement. Benmont Tench is a great rock keyboardist, generally classy and understated, but willing to pitch in with some grunty organ sounds in the late '70s material. Mike Campbell's guitar leads are also understated and effective, Stan Lynch is a solid drummer, while bassist Howie Epstein's harmonies were a key component of the Petty sound. Petty's songwriting took a couple of albums to hit top gear, and some of the early material such as 'American Girl' and 'Listen to Her Heart' is uninteresting and irritating. But once the material from 1979's Damn the Torpedoes kicks in, Anthology is simply great song after great song, presented in a humble and accessible fashion. Petty generally isn't ambitious, and is content to pump out well written songs based in an Americana populated by losers. It may sound like Springsteen, but Petty's slacker hippies are a distinct subspecies from Bruce's caged workers. In fact the only song from 1979 onward that's not terrific is 1982's awful 'You Got Lucky'; I guess it had to be included, as it was a hit single at the time, but its grating synthesizer riff and self-righteous lyrics are completely atypical for Petty. This double disc set also chucks on a few non-album tracks; 'Waiting For Tonight' is an enjoyable Full Moon Fever outtake, while 'Surrender' is an unimpressive 2001 recording of a song written in the seventies. Even if Petty never pushed the artistic envelope too far, he is one of the most talented songwriters of his generation and the compilation is well worth a try. In fact, it's debatable whether you'll ever need another Petty album apart from this, although it's a shame that its chronology ends before 'You Wreck Me' or 'Walls'.
Wildflowers(1994)Most successful songwriters peak early in their careers, while they have normal lives with normal problems to deal with. When they become rock stars, their problems become more distant from their fan base and more difficult to write songs about. Petty has never suffered badly from Rock Star Writer syndrome; he has a magic formula going where he writes about his imaginary loser alter-ego and its lack of success with women. For proof check out the lyrics to 1982's 'Straight Into Darkness' ("then one day that feeling just died."), 1989's 'Free Falling' ("and I'm a bad boy for breaking her heart.") or almost any other song in Petty's catalogue. For Wildflowers Petty had real emotional difficulty with the failure of his twenty five year marriage, which provides him with plenty of inspiration to write a batch of great songs. The light-hearted 'House in the Woods' sounds out of place both thematically and musically, with a full arrangement. Otherwise the stripped down songs on Wildflowers examine different facets of Petty's relationship, from meeting ("I'll be the boy in the corduroy pants, you be the girl at the high school dance"), despair in 'Don't Fade on Me' ("Today you are too tired to even leave your bed") and release in the title track. In other words Petty's songwriting is as solid as ever, but it packs added emotional clout. Ringo Starr drums on' To Find a Friend', while Beachboy Carl Wilson sings on 'Honey Bee'. In other sixties-related trivia the sides of the LP edition are labelled nos 12 and 35 in homage to Bob Dylan's 'Rainy Day Woman'.
She's The One(1996)A soundtrack to a generic Hollywood movie, although it doesn't filter through to the music too much. The music doesn't filter through to the film too much either, so the connection between the two is relatively slight. For some reason, there are a couple of short instrumentals and a couple of the songs are represented in two different versions which spoil the flow a little, but it's more or less a regular Petty album. There is an amusing juxtaposition of images on the back cover; with a picture of Jennifer Aniston placed next to Mike Campbell drinking a glass of milk. Petty also throws in a couple of covers of Beck and Lucinda Williams, at the time both young and critically acclaimed. The double ups, the instrumentals and the cover tunes do give the impression that this is a second string Petty release, but that's not the case; it might not rate among his strongest albums, but there's plenty of enjoyable material here. After the relative bleakness of Wildflowers, the light hearted tone of songs like 'Zero From Outer Space' and 'California' is refreshing. As I keep stating on this page, there's no reason to buy Petty studio albums since the core of classic singles on each album is usually a step ahead of the rest of the material. The same is true for She's The One, but there's no compilation covering the post-1993 era yet, so if you want to hear material from this you'll need to bite the bullet and buy it (or at least download some of it). The classic core of material includes 'Walls', a catchy pop rocker with great backing vocals from Fleetwood Mac mastermind Lindsay Buckingham, and 'Climb That Hill', one of Petty's grittier rock songs. The riff happy cover of Lucinda Williams' 'Change The Locks' is wonderful and ultra catchy, with Petty conveying drama and humour in his drawling vocal performance. 'Hung Up And Overdue' is a moving ballad, with Starr and Wilson reprising their roles from Wildflowers. There's also plenty of stylistic variation; the energy of 'Zero From Outer Space' evokes sixties garage rock, while 'Angel Dream' is a gentle acoustic ballad. It does come across as light weight at times, and I might feel disgruntled if I'd paid full price for it, but She's The One is a fun enough diversion.
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Written 2001-2009, Graham Fyfe
