This was Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ final album, and it is a deceptively good one. Initially, it sounds a bit harsh and as if it is trying to sound contemporary but a couple of listens in it starts to get to work on you. It is very much a grower. Sure, it is quite a heavy, dark album compared to some of Petty’s past work, but therein lies its slow burning appeal. Those old new wave days seem a long time ago, though.
American Dream Plan B is a chunky, solid, fuzzy and metallic opener. It is quite un-Petty in places, with a dense, tinny, grungy soundscape. It is full of great guitar breaks, however. Far more bassy, though, is the infectious self-analytical Fault Lines, with its delicious extended instrumental intro and behind the main beat funky edge. I really like this one.
Red River is also a strong, industrial strength rocker with vague hints of Bruce Springsteen’s River sessions material. Full Grown Boy slows the pace down on a slightly jazzy bass-powered sleepy groove. Check out that great jazz guitar solo in the middle too.
Crashing riffage is back for All You Can Carry, which is another dense rocker. This is quite heavy, uncompromising stuff. The deep, slightly menacing Power Drunk ploughs a similar furrow to most of what has been before. It contains some searing guitar and has a sort of grungy psychedelic, garage sound.
Forgotten Man has some echoes of the seventies in Petty’s vocals and it is driven along by a huge drum sound, together with some expertly merged, razor sharp acoustic and electric guitars. Sins Of My Youth returns to the spacey, jazzy sound of a few songs earlier on a beautifully laid-back number that has a slightly croaky Petty sounding vaguely like an ageing Bryan Ferry. It is a most attractive number.
The Prince-like titled U Get Me High bristles with unsubtle guitar attack. Once more, I find it is a track that really gets into my bloodstream. The blues finally makes an appearance on the quirky, harmonica-led Burnt Out Town, which features a distant, unusual-sounding vocal and some killer piano from Benmont Tench. Shadow People was the final track on the final album and a fine one it was too, full of atmosphere and great instrumentation. As it always was.
