I hate the 1980s for so many different reasons that words sometimes fail.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
In addition to producing some of my least favorite musical styles and artists ever, the 80s threatened to ruin (and in some cases did ruin) the careers of a number of terrific artists from the 70s. In far too many cases, said artists reacted to disco and new wave and Brit-pop and corporate rock by surrendering to fashion, scrubbing their sound antiseptically clean, punching up the synths and electronic drums, and emotionally distancing themselves from their own music. <\/p>\n
It was a soul-deadening trend, and for all their classic-rock fervor and efforts to maintain musical integrity, Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers were not immune to it. You can hear it from the opening chords of \u201cA One Story Town\u201d — the slicked-up guitars, the flat, tinny drum tone, the processed vocals.\u00a0 Not that \u201cTown\u201d (or the similarly botched \u201cWe Stand A Chance\u201d) is a terrible song — it isn\u2019t, it\u2019s just been dressed up all wrong, like taking the smart-mouthed biker on Petty\u2019s debut album cover and putting him in Don Johnson\u2019s Miami Vice<\/i> white Armani instead.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Setting aside the production for a moment \u2013 because that\u2019s as long as we possibly can \u2013 it must be said that there are several decent songs on this album.\u00a0 \u201cDeliver Me\u201d and \u201cFinding Out\u201d offer plenty of drive, \u201cChange Of Heart\u201d features one of those chunky guitar hooks that just won\u2019t let go, and \u201cA Wasted Life\u201d is one of the group\u2019s finer ballads, atmospheric, moody and well-arranged.\u00a0 None of these tunes, though, is better than pretty good, and the rest \u2013 including the rather ironically titled \u201cSame Old You\u201d — is same-y filler, meaning this disc can\u2019t be classified as anything other than a disappointment. After three and half albums of timeless, vital music, with Long After Dark, <\/i>Petty and the Heartbreakers suddenly sounded distressingly ordinary.\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Oh, say the Petty faithful, but what about the big single?<\/p>\n
The big single from this disc is in fact possibly my least favorite cut on it. \u201cYou Got Lucky\u201d could have been a terrific song, no question. It\u2019s among Petty\u2019s finer snarly, self-affirming lyrics (Tom gives great attitude), and has a solid melodic foundation, but the entire construction comes crashing down the minute poor Benmont Tench starts playing one of the decade\u2019s most annoying two-finger synthesizer riffs. I\u2019ve heard more attractive car alarms.<\/p>\n
Long After Dark<\/i> fortunately did not portend the end of Tom Petty\u2019s productive songwriting days, only a mid-career lull. He would bounce back later in the decade with better songs and more fitting production. Until then, though, things were indeed rather dark for awhile.\u00a0 Damn you, 80s\u2026 damn you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6253],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-41096","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tom-petty-the-heartbreakers","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41096","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41096"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}