More Like Tom Petty and the Earbreakers
Note: I have no clue how culpable The Heartbreakers were in making this album, so I have left them out to protect their pride and sanity.
The title is just a joke. This mid ass album doesn't even deserve that nomenclature. This is my first album out of the 1001, chosen randomly, and it tells me that this list is at least partially picked by a boomer. Because only nostalgia glasses could make someone put this mid album on a "1001 best albums ever" list. Then again, this wasn't even in the top 1000 albums released in 1976, so said boomer had pretty shit taste to begin with.
For reference, I'm smack dab in the middle of millennial. The songs that did make it on my Liked Songs list (and gave this album any points at all), I suspect is because I've heard them thousands of times in the 90s on staticy radio stations. It was pretty surreal hearing them in HD after only hearing them in the lowest possible quality.
The best thing about this album is that it is mercifully short. Tom manages to shove 10 songs into a 30 minute runtime. I don't know if my brain is just broken by being used to longer songs, but hearing a song be done after two and a half minutes is bizarre. I think I would be more upset if the songs were actually good.
I feel like if this were released today, it would be openly mocked. The basic music with Tom Petty whining in his weird voice over it sounds more like parody than earnest music. I feel like Tom Petty & Co are at their best when they aren't trying so hard.
In the end, I believe this was before they really found their sound, which makes sense: it was their first album. It sounds like an amalgamation of all of the popular rock released at the time, which doesn't make it particularly memorable.
Also, there's a song that's pretty racist. It's 1976, Tom Petty. Do better.
Scoring out of 20, the album got two points: I added Breakdown and Luna to my Liked Songs. I wanted to give them an extra point for reminding me that their best song, Mary Jane's Dance, existed. Unfortunately, that song was not on this album, so it doesn't count.
1/5
It isn't that this album is bad, it's more that this isn't my type of music. I like their later efforts much better, or at least they fit my taste much better. On my scale, it would be a 2/5 which sounds relatively harsh, but oh well.
It also reminded me that Money for Nothing existed which is a banger, but apparently theres a whole ass homophobic verse they cut out of the radio version, so I don't feel too bad about giving them a 2 actually.
So, first thought when opening the album is that it's from the 80s instead of the 70s like the last few days, so maybe it has a better chance at me liking it. Then started listening to the first song. I really hope the rest of the album isn't like this, I'll just say that.
Songs were so repetitive that they felt like they were 10 hours long. Not really my type of music, yet again.
I added a few songs to my liked songs. I'm actually going to change my scale due to this album. It is going to be number out of total songs, then adding to my "faves" playlist gives one bonus point. That would give this album a 34% which I believe more fairly reflects than the less than 20% before.
While I recognize this album is likely very important to rock, punk rock in particular, it literally put me to sleep. There are a few good songs in there though.
I feel whoever made this 1001 list is more apt to put the artist's early efforts vs their more tenured efforts which reflects in my scores.
At its best when it's talking about a dude being eaten by flies and writing jail letters, at its worst when it is trying to be a rip off of The Beatles.
But still, it was better than I thought it would be, especially since this isn't my type of music typically.
Honestly, after the past week, I'm just glad to get an album that was released within the past 30-ish years. Also gives me confidence that maybe there are other albums on the list released beyond 1979. I haven't spoiled myself by looking at the list yet.
This album is very, very good. This is my first time listening to the entire album from the first track to the last, I think I've just heard the songs randomly over the years. But damn, this scratches just the right itch for me.
Also, I accidentally sent a screenshot of this album with the text "national cheeseburger day" because it is national cheeseburger day today, which is funny as hell. I was like, Offspring Smashburger collab hahaha.
