 10. Tom Petty, Wildflowers (1994)
My favorite Tom Petty album, hands down.
This album, perhaps more than any of his earlier ones (solo or with the Heartbreakers),
shows Petty's versatility as a songwriter and musician. His standard driving
guitar-rock style is evident in "You Wreck Me" and "A Higher Place,"
but this disc also contains two of the sweetest songs I've ever heard him sing:
"Wildflowers" and "Only a Broken Heart." On Wildflowers
he also explores a darker rock style, with songs like "You Don't Know How it
Feels" and "It's Good to be King," which recall earlier hits like
"Mary Jane's Last Dance" and "I Won't Back Down."
Throughout the eighties, I was aware of Tom
Petty and I liked his music, but I wasn't truly a fan until the release of his first solo
album, Full Moon Fever (1989). When he followed that up with a new
Heartbreakers CD, Into the Great Wide Open (1991), I was hooked. I think of
Tom Petty's sound as an updated version of The Byrds, with a sharp edge of rock and roll,
and I like that combination very much. |
