first Wilburys album<\/a> hit stores, Petty had decided it was time to cut the first solo album of his career.<\/p>\nAt least, sort of.\u00a0 For while producer\/co-writer\/multi-instrumentalist Jeff Lynne\u2019s sonic stamp is all over this album, Petty\u2019s Heartbreakers foil and lead guitarist Mike Campbell is also prominently featured, with Heartbreakers Benmont Tench (keys) and Howie Epstein (bass\/vocals) as well as fellow Wilburys Orbison and Harrison all dropping in to contribute to individual tracks.<\/p>\n
Regardless of the personnel involved, though, Full Moon Fever<\/i> represented a definite break from the Heartbreakers\u2019 80s sound, and the change was indisputably for the better.\u00a0 Mostly eschewing synthesizers and studio effects for a stripped-down, loose and warm rockabilly vibe, Petty and company made an album that to this day stands among the man\u2019s very best work.<\/p>\n
The power of a great one-two punch to start off an album could scarcely find a better illustration that this disc\u2019s opening duo of \u201cFree Fallin\u2019\u201d and \u201cI Won\u2019t Back Down,\u201d the former a wistful mid-tempo ballad with an iconic riff, and the latter a ringing declaration of purpose with a hook that could land a killer whale.\u00a0 By the time this pair finishes you know that if the rest is half this good, the album is going to be great.<\/p>\n
The rest, as it turns out, is in fact pretty close to exactly half that good.\u00a0 The remainder of side one — TP throws in a dryly witty between-side interlude to help CD listeners replicate the experience of vinyl LP purchasers — is wonderful.\u00a0 \u201cLove Is A Long Road\u201d might be the most underappreciated song on this album, with burning lead guitar from Campbell<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, hard-driving drums from Wilbury-mate Jim Keltner and perhaps the wisest lyric here.\u00a0 \u201cA Face In The Crowd\u201d is a gentle, atmospheric ballad about the way people just appear in your life when they\u2019re meant to.\u00a0 And \u201cRunnin\u2019 Down A Dream\u201d — well, let\u2019s just say if you\u2019ve never blasted this one while barreling down the freeway with the top down, you really need to.<\/p>\nThings ease off a bit on side two, as they would almost have to.\u00a0 The Byrds cover \u201cI\u2019ll Feel A Whole Lot Better\u201d is both a respectful nod to one of Petty\u2019s musical idols and a terrific cut in its own right, another personal favorite from this disc.\u00a0 After that you get to the filler, and with it, the understanding that what turns a decent latter-day Petty album into a great one is the quality of that inevitable padding.\u00a0 Here you get a couple of fairly entertaining rockabillyish throwaways (\u201cYer So Bad,\u201d \u201cThe Apartment Song\u201d) and a pair of cheeky Wilbury-style raveups (\u201cA Mind With A Heart Of Its Own,\u201d \u201cZombie Zoo\u201d), none spectacular but none boring either, only perhaps a little too easy for a songwriter of Petty\u2019s caliber. <\/p>\n
In addition to producing and playing on every song on this album, Lynne co-writes seven tracks and his sonic stamp is everywhere: acoustic rhythm guitar, layered harmonies and rootsy, Beatlesque vibe.\u00a0 This would all become a bit much when Petty invited the full Heartbreakers lineup back in the studio with him and Lynne for the subsequent Heartbreakers album Into The Great Wide Open<\/i>, but for this disc it was the right sound at the right time.\u00a0 It clicked, and after a decade-long slump, in Full Moon Fever<\/i> Tom Petty turned out one of his very best.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5868],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-41112","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-tom-petty","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41112","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=41112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41112\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41112"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}