Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Long After Dark - 1982

 

I have read a few criticisms of this 1982 album from Petty and his Heartbreakers, accusing it of being formulaic and tired. I am having none of that - it is a vibrant, rocking enjoyable album. Yes, it betrays some traits of its era, but it still retains a strong rock flavour. 

A One Story Town is a riffy opener with a sharp percussion sound and that familiar new wave meets jangly sixties rock vibe to it. It has a very early eighties new wave feeling about it. As it was the eighties, the use of synthesisers is creeping in, and they are certainly there on the admittedly catchy riff of You Got Lucky. Parts of the keyboard break remind me a lot of Billy Joel's All For Leyna. 

Deliver Me returns to a more-guitar-dominated Stonesy sound on a nice piece of solid period rock. The drum sound brings to mind much of the material from Bruce Springsteen’s River sessions, not for the first time with Petty. Even more owing a debt to The Stones is the weighty riffery of Change Of Heart. I really like this track. It also has a typical power pop-new wave-style vocal, such as used by The Jags or Graham Parker, again not for the first time. 

Liveliness and full-on rock attack continues on Finding Out. There is a bit of typical eighties unremastered tinniness on these tracks, but that doesn't detract from the general overall energy. This one bristles from beginning to end. We Stand A Chance is a very eighties-sounding mid-pace rocker with some nice sharp riffs and the same can be said for the also chunkier and bassier Straight Into Darkness. 

The Same Old You is an attractively lazy-sounding seventies-style number and a clunking piano drives on Between Two Worlds. I do accept that there is a bit of a sameyness about these tracks and they are ones that don’t really stick in the mind, but they are still enjoyable to listen to. Some of Petty’s songs have always been a bit like that, which is probably why he never made it properly to the top table. 

The final number, A Wasted Life, sees a bit of a change in its sleepy melody and slurry vocal that sounds like a cross between slow Springsteen and slow Stones. Although the album’s best material comes at the beginning, it is a pleasurable short sharp blast of inconsequential rocking air.  

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