Tom Petty - Highway Companion

Let's go ahead and get the obvious out of the way: yes, this is the best album Petty's done since Wildflowers, his previous "solo" effort (when half of your backing band plays on most of the songs, can it really be called a "solo" effort?). Wildflowers was easily one of Petty's best albums ever, in large part because it seemed so effortless and natural and at ease. There was a simplicity to the songs--even songs that featured strings like "It's Good to be King"--that was in stark contrast to the two Jeff Lynne-helmed albums that came before it, Full Moon Fever and Into the Great Wide Open. There was also almost no filler: the album was fantastic from beginning to end, and even the songs that felt like throwaways had a vitality and a feel to them that made them worth keeping on the record.

Then came a decade of fairly mediocre or run-of-the-mill Heartbreakers albums. Well, only two of them, actually: Echo and The Last DJ. Nothing from Echo really stood out that much. The songs weren't memorable, and though they had that simplicity of arrangement and production that Wildflowers had possessed, the record had none of Wildflowers' charm or naturalness to it. And The Last DJ, while an admirable idea, just didn't have the songs or the momentum to carry off the concept. Both Echo and The Last DJ were serious letdowns after the masterpiece that was Wildflowers.

So Highway Companion comes as a pleasant surprise and a strong return to form for Petty. This record is significantly more solo than his two previous solo albums: the only other players on the whole record are Mike Campbell and Jeff Lynne, who also produces. Petty himself plays guitar and drums on most every track, Lynne plays keyboards, bass, guitar, and various other instruments, and Mike Campbell plays guitar. Lots of guitar. Good guitar. Mike Campbell is still one of the best and most underrated guitar players in rock and roll.

Lynne's production is surprisingly restrained. Gone are his usual bombast and layer upon layer of instruments. These are very stripped-down arrangements, usually featuring just two guitars, bass, drums, and a keyboard. The music is straight-forward and simple, a consolidation of the style and feel of Tom Petty's entire career, really. This is uncluttered, well-crafted, working-man's roots rock, and Petty and Co. wear it well.

The stripped-down feel of the music fits the songs Petty's written for the album. While these are not career-statements like "Dont' Do Me Like That" or"American Girl" or "Free Fallin'" or even "Mary Jane's Last Dance," they are excellent examples of the various styles and themes Petty has played with since his career began. The opening bluesy rocker, "Saving Grace," feels like a ZZ Top-via-The Byrds tune. The ballads are careful and beautiful, the sentiment heartfelt without being trite or treaclely. The rockers are fun and shuffle along to a good rhythm. There's an undercurrent of sadness to the whole affair, though, a sense of aging and of a prime that's several years past. But Petty both rebels against and accepts the inevitable: while he isn't necessarily happy about becoming an elder statesman of rock and roll, he acknowledges just how long the road to where he is has been and that it's been worth the detours to get there. That element of sadness and melancholy is actually part of what makes the album so good: if this were just straight-ahead classic rock that was all girls, guitars, and fast cars, it would feel false and dishonest. But Petty's touch of grey grounds the album, strikes a balance between superficial "gee ain't it fun to rock and roll" tone of the lyrics and the yearning for the good ol' days that Petty allows to creep into his vocal delivery.

The album loses some momentum towards the end, where it's weighed down with too many ballads and mid-tempo songs that all follow similiar paths and themes. But even this can't really keep the album down; the songs Petty has written are still sharp and well-done. There's a commitment to this music that his previous two albums lacked. While Echo and The Last DJ may have had their themes (divorce and moving on/acceptance for Echo and the evils of corporate rock and roll for The Last DJ), the variation and lack of a unifying theme to Highway Companion actually serve it well. Petty was able to write the songs he wanted to rather than the songs that fit the concept, and the music benefits from this freedom.

Overall, it's hard not to like Highway Companion. While it may not be a watershed moment like his two previous solo albums (a pair of creative peaks in his career), it's still a solid reminder that Petty is a great musician, even thirty years into the gig.

~chuck

Song of the Moment: Tom Petty, "Jack"