Now Listening To (The Resurrection), Musical Musings Options

[treydog]

The Saturday Late Night Random 10:

Funplex- The B-52s

In Memory of Elizabeth Reed- Allman Brothers

The Way- Fastball

Daydream Believer- The Monkees

I Ain't Superstitious- Howlin' Wolf

What I Like About You- The Romantics

Skating- Vince Guaraldi (A Charlie Brown Christmas)

A Sight for Sore Eyes- Tom Waits

Pennsylvania Six-Five Thousand- Glenn Miller

Style- U.R. Penetrators

As usual, it really is a random mix, esp. with the Vince Guaraldi in there...

[bbqplatypus]

Highway Companion by Tom Petty. Much as its title suggests, this is a great album to listen to while driving. This does not, however, mean that the content is lightweight or even, God forbid, mildly pleasant background music. It is actually quite introspective and personal. Yet this fits quite perfectly with the notion of driving miles of open road, alone (or perhaps with friends) on a long trip, staring at the vast plains and rolling hills. Perfect for all those camping trips I used to take down to Lake City, Minnesota.

Anywho, most people who have any familiarity with this album at all will be quite familiar with the opener, "Saving Grace," a high-energy "La Grange"-esque blues shuffle. The album shifts musical gears pretty quickly, though, with the much more subdued "Square One." Though it's not my favorite song on here, some of the lyrics here hint at some of what's to come.

"Last time through I hid my tracks
So well I could not get back
Yeah my way was hard to find
Can't sell your soul for peace of mind"

It becomes pretty clear early on that Petty is using the setting of a driving album to create an artistic statement about life's journey, and how the passage of time affects people and changes their perspective, written from the viewpoint of someone who is getting older. In this vein, "Flirting with Time" is one of my favorite songs on the album. It is very maturely written and also has a good melody.

There is also a decent amount of variety present here. We also have more upbeat and jaunty songs like "Jack" and "Big Weekend," slow, swampy, shuffles that evoke the atmosphere of songs like "You Don't Know How it Feels" or "Mary Jane's Last Dance" ("This Old Town" and "Turn This Car Around," respectively), and quiet, moody pieces like "Night Driver" and "The Golden Rose."

Overall, this is easily Petty's best album since Wildflowers, and as far as his solo sans-Heartbreakers stuff goes, it's comparable to Wildflowers and Full Moon Fever in quality (though possibly slightly less amazing). If you're a Tom Petty fan, you already own this album and know what I'm talking about. If you are only casually and vaguely aware of Tom Petty and liked what little you heard, I'd recommend starting out with either the two aforementioned solo albums, Damn the Torpedoes, or their debut, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. However, I would also very much recommend this one as well. It is a terrific album and doesn't have a single bad song on it. (I know I've used this praise a lot in this thread, but I mean it - this is one of the important criteria by which I judge great albums).

This post has been edited by bbqplatypus: Jan 7 2009, 09:25 PM