Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Hard Promises - 1981

 

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers albums, by now, 1981, were becoming trustworthy, more of the same impressive fare offerings. 1979's Damn The Torpedoes had established Petty and his band as a solid outfit worthy of respect from both the rock and the new wave fraternities. 

After the slightly dodgy sound of the band's first two albums, this, their fourth outing, finds a better quality of sonic delivery. There is not too much analysis that can be given to these Petty albums - he was a deceptively good rock songwriter and his band could play. 

The first two tracks are the ones that instantly stand out - The Waiting, which became the album's fan favourite, and the anthemic rock of A Woman In Love (It's Not Me). The former is one of those archetypal Petty upbeat rock songs, full of anthemic hooks and killer guitar riffs and the later is a fine example of his slower, but equally punchy numbers. Nightwatchman has a sort of funky rock vibe about it. 

Something Big is a brooding, Stonesy slow burner and Kings Road sees the riffiness return on a typical Petty rocker. Presumably, judging by the lyrics, it is about a visit to the legendary London street. Letting You Go also ticks all the boxes of requisites for a slow but catchy Petty number. It has a lot of John Mellencamp influence. 

A Thing About You rocks as hard as anything on the album, with hints of River-era Bruce Springsteen and Graham Parker in the song. Check out that great guitar intro. Insider is a walking pace, organ-powered maudlin-ish number, with Petty's voice delivering in that strange, slurry tone of his to great effect. In many ways, his voice is awful, but in other respects, his songs wouldn't sound the same without it. The chunky rock of The Criminal Kind sounds very much like Bob Dylan did around the same period, both vocally and musically. 

You Can Still Change Your Mind ends the album on a low-key, but dignified note. The thing I find with these albums is that none of the songs, or indeed the album as a whole particularly sticks in your mind, yet at the same time it is still a quality offering. You can't argue with it, not in any way, but neither can you make a case for it being extra special.

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