Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Anthology

This is an excellent anthology - taking between two and four tracks from each of the albums produced by Florida’s Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. They were a classic Southern States, soaked in Bourbon guitar-driven bluesy rock band, with clear influences from The Byrds, The Searchers, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Graham Parker and Bruce Springsteen. The late Tom Petty (I still can’t really believe I’m writing that) had a unique voice that, at times, was something of a whiny bleat but it did improve and get stronger over time and he was an excellent guitarist. The voice, rather like with Bob Dylan, never really detracted from the appeal of the material. The band, The Heartbreakers, were somewhat faceless, no rock star pretensions, just honest guys would could certainly play. The backing on the songs is always excellent.

This is an attractive album for me because it appears to have been remastered, and has a full, punchy sound that makes room for the often melodious bass lines to be heard. The remastering is particularly relevant on the four tracks taken from 1976’s debut album, which was recorded notoriously badly - tinny and weak. Here, at least there is a bit more “oomph”, which is pleasing, considering that two of the tracks are the iconic pair of Breakdown and American Girl.

The other highlights are the wonderful Don’t Do Me Like That, Refugee, I Won’t Back Down, Here Comes My Girl, Listen To Her Heart, Free Fallin’ and Don’t Come Around Here No More. No place for the rocking Anything That’s Rock n Roll’s Right, which is a shame, however.

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