The fact that Mudcrutch named their sophomore album 2<\/i> tells you everything you need to know about this band. This album looks and sounds\u2014and is named\u2014like exactly what it is: a group of old pals getting together in the studio, kidding around, needling each other and having a good time, without a single solitary thought about anything beyond having that experience. These guys seriously, sincerely, just wanna play.<\/p>\n
And play they can. Mudcrutch, the decades-later-reunited precursor band to Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, features three-fifths of the latter group in Petty (who plays bass here), guitarist Mike Campbell and keyboardist Benmont Tench, with Tom Leadon (guitar) and Randy Marsh (drums) finishing out the lineup. The group had such a good time making their 2008 debut\u2014which appeared a mere 38 years after the band first formed in 1970, when Petty was just 17\u2014that they reconvened in 2016 to do it again.<\/p>\n
The first thing that becomes apparent is that this unit is looser and more democratic than The Heartbreakers, a group that was formed specifically to serve a vehicle for Petty\u2019s songwriting. Mudcrutch, by contrast, features each of the five guys writing and singing, though Petty still gets the majority of the writing credits and lead vocals. <\/p>\n
A lot of Petty\u2019s songs here have a somewhat loping cadence that remind of his other friendly musical collective the Traveling Wilburys, and in fact the Dylan influence that crept into TP\u2019s vocals during that period is also evident. But the vocals on this album are notable for other reasons, too\u2026 When Tench and Campbell step up to the mic to sing their numbers it\u2019s hard not to chuckle just a little; their voices are their own, with different timbre and texture than TP\u2019s, but their phrasing and even their cadence are dead giveaways that these two have spent more than half their lifetimes singing harmonies for Tom Petty.<\/p>\n
Kickoff cut \u201cTrailer\u201d is a steady-on rocker offering a view into the life of a classic Petty character, a trailer park romantic, and a couple of typically tight Campbell solos. TP\u2019s \u201cDreams Of Flying\u201d and \u201cBeautiful Blue\u201d deliver very Heartbreakers-y jangle, both with Leadon featured on harmonies. The latter is a very pretty love song with a nice lilt and a gorgeous, extended solo that veers into George Harrison \u201cweeping\u201d territory. <\/p>\n
Marsh takes the lead vocal on his tune \u201cBeautiful World,\u201d an interesting amalgam that has a \u201990s alt-rock feel on the verses, before it goes full Wilbury on the chorus. TP returns for an acoustic contemplation on \u201cI Forgive It All\u201d before Leadon takes his turn with his country rock number \u201cThe Other Side Of The Mountain,\u201d featuring Herb Pedersen on banjo and harmony vocals. <\/p>\n
Petty\u2019s stomper \u201cHope\u201d goes full retro with Tench delivering Ray Manzarek \u201967 organ tones while Campbell nails a similarly-fuzzed out vibe on lead guitar. If it wasn\u2019t a party yet, \u201cWelcome To Hell\u201d gets us all the way in the door as Tench takes his turn fronting the group. His Zombies \u201965-ish organ dominates what feels like a lost British Invasion number, a distant cousin of \u201cMonster Mash\u201d that the band\u2014Campbell in particular\u2014has an absolute blast with.<\/p>\n
Petty\u2019s lilting \u201cSave Your Water\u201d passes a comfortable, Wilburyesque 3:11 before Campbell\u2019s \u201cVictim Of Circumstance\u201d plows in with a classic early-\u201960s greasy roadhouse rock feel. The album closes with an extended take on Petty\u2019s \u201cHungry No More,\u201d a stately statement song about asserting yourself and going after what you need. Campbell gets room to stretch out on the solo here in a way he rarely did in the Heartbreakers before their final two albums.<\/p>\n
The production team here is Petty\u2019s late-career brain trust of himself, Campbell and Ryan Ulyate, and they get just what they were after: punchy, entertaining music that\u2019s animated by the sheer joy of playing. If we\u2019re honest, there\u2019s nothing extra special or essential about the songs on 2<\/i>; this album is just a good time, for the players as much as the audience\u2026 and sometimes, that\u2019s all you need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34841,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[8276],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-46708","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-mudcrutch","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46708","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=46708"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46708\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46708"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46708"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46708"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46708"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}