Anthology Through The Years - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Tom Petty is one of the great (and mostly underrated) American songwriters of recent and not-so-recent decades, with a consistently brilliant backing group of expert musicians, the Heartbreakers. This 2-CD set is essentially an extended greatest hits collection, showcasing the cream of Petty's output from his first releases in 1976 to songs recorded in 2000. Disc one contains early classics such as 'Breakdown', 'Refugee', and the evergreen 'American Girl' - pure rock n roll, raw and unpolished, at times dark and at other times shimmering. In these tracks it is easy to discern the chiming Rickenbacker guitars, nasal vocals, and All-American content that ...  Read the complete review

An excellent anthology of one of America's finest singer songwriters, Tom Petty, and especially with the Heartbreakers, is one of the greatest bands ever commited to vinyl. From such classics as 'don't do me like that', 'refugee', 'the waiting' and 'i won't back down', to later classics such as 'learning to fly' and 'into the great wide open', this is the perfect primer for the uninitiated. A 2 cd set covering Petty's beginnings in 1976, right through to 1991 [and several tracks recorded after this time]. Anything from 1989's masterful 'Full Moon Fever' and my two personal favourite Petty albums; 'Damn The Torpedoes' [1979] and 'Hard Promises' [1981], these albums are ...  Read the complete review