The new material is full of characters: the subjects of “There Goes Angela” and the catchy “Leave Virginia Alone” (originally given to Rod Stewart for his 1995 album A Spanner in the Works), Jenny dancing in the rain in the lush “Somewhere Under Heaven” (a standout, with swirling guitar and orchestral arrangements), and “Harry Green,” an unexpected turn in the tradition of dead-teenager songs of the 1950s and ’60s, but not quite. The remasters are followed by new songs (a handful of which aren’t actually that new: “California,” “Climb That Hill,” “Hope You Never,” and “Hung Up and Overdue” were included on the soundtrack to the 1996 movie She’s the One, effectively a Petty studio album). “You’re just a poor boy alone in this world, and it’s wake up time / Time to open up your eyes and rise / and shine,” Petty sings to himself, his voice just a little more strained than it used to be. The Wildflowers recording sessions began right after Petty’s 40th birthday, and the material reflects where he found himself at that place in his life, most notably at the beginning of the end of his marriage of 20+ years to his wife Jane. It’s an album that feels organic and honest, like it was recorded by someone in a denim shirt worn to softness and a ball cap (which it was). Sonically, it’s marked by crisp, sparkling acoustic guitars and ringing piano. He’d been releasing the remaining songs here and there before his death in 2017, and Wildflowers & All the Rest finally puts them where he wanted them: in the same place.Īll the Rest opens with the 2014 remasters of the original tracks, featuring all the Heartbreakers at the time minus drummer Stan Lynch, who was at a creative and personal standstill with Petty and preparing to depart the band for good. If you ask a lot of die-hard fans, though, Wildflowers is his best work you’d be hard pressed to find a better Petty album that’s not a greatest-hits compilation. They’re not quite mainstays of classic-rock radio save for “You Don’t Know How it Feels,” written partly because producer Rick Rubin suggested the album needed a hit single and Petty reciprocated with “Let’s get to the point / let’s roll another joint” (honorable mention to “You Wreck Me,” recognizable in its own right). Petty trimmed down his intended set of songs, and the album was released with fifteen excellent tracks. By Lydia Pudzianowski ( fairly well known that Tom Petty wrote his critically acclaimed 1994 record Wildflowersas a double album, but Warner Bros., then his new label, nixed that plan, saying it would be too long.
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