\nDamn The Torpedoes<\/i> was Tom Petty’s breakthrough album,
\nthanks to two top-40 hits, the catchy “Don’t Do Me Like That” and
\nthe rocking “Refugee”. And twenty years later, it still stands as
\none of Petty’s best albums. The songwriting is not always as mature
\nas some of his later releases, but he does manage to write some
\ngreat songs without losing the ability to rock out. Even his later
\nreleases cannot do that with consistency.<\/p>\n
Many have stated that Petty’s sound is a combination of the
\nRolling Stones and the Byrds. I won’t dispute that opinion. And no
\nsong in Petty’s catalog beautifully captures this combination than
\n“Here Comes My Girl”. On this song, the verse is shouted out in
\nMick Jagger style while the rest of the band plays in an
\nunderstated manner, and when the chorus comes, so do the
\ntwelve-string guitars, and Petty transforms himself into Roger
\nMcGuinn. In short, this song is a stunner.<\/p>\n
Other standouts on this album include “Even The Losers”, a song
\nthat actually combines the poppiness of “Don’t Do Me Like That”
\nwith the rock edge of “Refugee”. This song is soulful and
\nperceptive. And with a line like “Even the losers get lucky
\nsometimes”, I always thought it would be cool if organists at
\nbaseball games play this song when the opposing team scores.<\/p>\n
Another standout is the slower, edgy “You Tell Me”. This song is
\ngreat for those that like later Petty songs like “Mary Jane’s Last
\nDance”. Rounding out
\nDamn The Torpedoes<\/i> are three solid, energetic rockers
\n“Shadow Of A Doubt”, “Century City” and “What Are You Doin’ In My
\nLife”, and one ballad, the countryish “Louisiana Rain”.<\/p>\n
I think it is important to note the work of organist Benmont
\nTench. While all the Heartbreakers – guitarist Mike Campbell,
\ndrummer Stan Lynch and bassist Ron Blair – make this band a pretty
\ntight outfit, it is Tench’s work that gives Petty a uniqueness to
\nhis sound that sets him apart from other rockers.<\/p>\n
\nDamn The Torpedoes<\/i> brings back the good old days before CD’s
\nbecame popular in that there are only nine songs. While I am very
\ngrateful for the invention of the compact disc, I feel that some
\nbands stuff too many songs on them because they have the room to do
\nso. It is tough enough for someone to write nine songs, let alone
\n14 or 15. I’m sure that when this album finally gets remastered,
\nthey will throw in some bonus tracks. But right now, you can pick
\nup this CD dirt cheap.<\/p>\n
Petty is not my favorite artist in the heartland rock genre. I
\nhave definite complaints with some of his other work that I might
\ndiscuss in later reviews. But it is hard to deny the power of
\nDamn The Torpedoes<\/i>. Here, Petty has come out with a great
\nparty album that also has quite a bit of heart. While others may
\nprefer the Jeff Lynne-produced
\nFull Moon Fever<\/i>, I feel that if Petty has an album that can
\nbe called a masterpiece,
\nDamn The Torpedoes<\/i> is it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":27740,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6253],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-39119","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tom-petty-the-heartbreakers","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27740"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39119"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}