Tom Petty - Wildflowers

You're all gonna cry "blasphemy!," but Wildflowers is my favorite Tom Petty album. I love earlier Tom Petty, but you have to know that i was a die hard MTV kid. The video for You Don't Know How It Feels was a big deal. I don't know if it was the actual first continuous shot music video, but it was pretty highly talked about. Plus, the various attempts at censoring the chorus were hilarious; how turning "joint" backward or changing "roll" to "hit" (i assume they were misguidedly thinking like "going to another bar"?) made it any better is beyond me.

Regardless, all three big hits are stellar (It's Good to Be King is very much one of his best songs altogether, lyrically/musically/emotionally), but the deep cuts are really interesting too. Some say the softest tracks are borderline sloppy but they had to wait twelve more years before Highway Companion came out to validate that opinion (it's certainly MY least favorite album). You could argue that there's a fair amount of thematic recycling (both musically and lyrically) on this album and from this album on later ones, but i think the differences actually justify it (you'll just have to go hear them for yourself).

Wildflowers is the perfect title, because it let's the whole project breathe. It's a metaphor for emotional freedom. It's still mostly the Heartbreakers, but it's not confined to the band's oeuvre. It's not Tom Petty the rockstar, it's Tom Petty the songwriter at large (songs that didn't make the album found good homes with other artists). It's a good mix of hard rock, folk, and country blues. It covers all the moods, and at just shy of 63 minutes, it's practically a double album.

My dad used to say Tom Petty was the best of the Bob Dylan-alikes (better than the original being the implication), and i don't really have an argument. They are quite similar in many ways, but with completely different egos and Tom Petty is certainly more likable. You know my refusal to qualify technical proficiency very well by now, but Petty is inarguably the more melodically inviting vocalist.

This album isn't trying to be anything more than it is, it's a sunny solitary day in a meadow, the songs blossom wherever the wind blew them, nothing's forced or hurried. It's a happy album in spite, or maybe because, of it's melencholic episodes. It's a thoroughly pleasing listen, and well worth carving out an entire hour to enjoy.

Next

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 4 Seasons - The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette

Image
This might be my longest  album review ever. But i swear a couple times, so it's worth the read ;) How could i possibly mention Jefferson Airplane, The 4 Seasons, and Frank Zappa in the same context? Zappa said "this is rediculous" and a few years later The 4 Seasons said "you know what, Frank is right. This IS ridiculous." To which Jefferson Airplane said, "Oh. Ok. Got it." The real question is: which one is the most transgressive? Zappa said stop fighting, you look like idiots. Jefferson Airplane said i guess if love and community is a bad thing, then sure we're criminals and we'd be happy to move out into the fields and live peaceful lives without your garbage, let us go already. The 4 Seasons said hold my champagne for a moment. In 1969, The 4 Seasons released the single most ironic, acidic, extravagant, and downright befuddling album ever created, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. Zappa was accused of writing "shitty doo-w
Read more

Welcome to my blog, and my record collection.

This is a blog about my love of listening to albums. It started off as a nightly perusal of my dad's record collection (which sadly became mine) on my personal facebook page. Over the last two months it has become quite an enjoyable process of simply ranting about what i think is a real art form, the album. It needs a more permanent home. Some of my reviews are positive, some negative. They might not be what you expect from album reviews, but i hope you at least find them entertaining. For the most part i do very little research, and they tend to be train of thought reactions rather than calculated essays. If nothing else, know that i'm really listening to them and whether they are amazing or abysmal i want you to go listen to them too.  I'll start migrating the 60+ i've written so far over here in the next few days, and hopefully get to the point where i just start writing them here. I'd probably even take suggestions if you're just dying to know my tho
Read more

Pat Benatar - Seven The Hard Way

Image
I don't know about you, but i love Pat Benatar. Yes, that's also her debut album with the single most underrated song in the universe (My Clone Sleeps Alone) in the background, but that's just a generic non-self-titled debut album. We're jumping ahead to her 6th album, Seven The Hard Way, because that, ladies and gentle germs, is how you kalaidescope a concept. Not one, not two, not three, but 4 protien-packed layers to this metaphor. You don't really need to know the overly complicated rules of Craps to know that A) it's gambling, B) "the hard way" refers to rolling doubles, so good luck rolling two 3.5s, and C) you're going to lose, one way or another. It's a joke, but more importantly, it's Pat Benatar and the roll out is Sex As A Weapon, so the innuendo is not intended to be subtle. Wait wait wait, that's only 3, Bottle, where's 4? You're right, last but not least, side B opens with Seven Rooms of Gloom, a Holland-Dozier-Hol
Read more