Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Songs From She's The One - 1996

 

This was a  more rough-edged, stripped-down, gritty and raw album that was a movie soundtrack but stands up alone as a credible album in its own right (I know nothing of the movie, for example). 

Soundtrack albums don't usually do that, often being clogged up with instrumental interludes. Indeed, this album doesn't sound like a movie soundtrack at all, Although it is slightly sprawling (fifty-one minutes long) and lacks just a little cohesion, it has an earthy, down 'n' dirty energy about it. 

The album contains a couple of covers, too - Change The Locks is a Lucinda Williams song and Asshole is from Beck. Compared to the previous two albums, though, it is not one I find myself returning to very often. 

Highlights are the typically Petty rock of Climb That Hill, the Ramones-ish thrash of Zero From Outer Space and the equally visceral and punk-ish Grew Up Fast. I have to say that Angel Dream (No. 4) is just so Springsteen-esque (his middle period) but it is still a great cut. The haunting Supernatural Radio is a good one too, as is the melodic rock of Walls (No. 3).

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