Highway Companion (2006)
1. Saving Grace
2. Square One
3. Flirting With Time
4. Down South
5. Jack
6. Turn This Car Around
7. Big Weekend
8. Night Driver
9. Damaged By Love
10.This Old Town
11.Ankle Deep
12.The Golden Rose
 
Around the turn of the century, when
Petty was pushing 50, he stated that when he was younger, he never
thought that he would still be playing rock and roll music when he
turned 40, and now that he was almost 50, he had no intentions of
quitting anytime soon. That was a good thing, as he was 55 when this
album was released and sounded as fresh and vital as ever.
You can hear, however, themes of aging on this album. This seems to be
one big reflection of the aging process, and most of the songs seem to
be about traveling in a car and looking back at his life (hence the
album title). Unless you're a "lyrics" person, none of this really
matters that much. It's a Tom Petty album, and it sounds like a Tom
Petty album - and a pretty good one too.
Jeff Lynne is back at the helms of the producer, yet this doesn't sound
much like a Jeff Lynne album. Lynne's trademark multi-layered vocals,
instruments and reverb of sound are absent, and this one is much more
pure and simple. Most of the songs here are between "very good" and
"great", with only a few tunes that seem a bit unworthy. Highlights are
the two singles Big Weekend and the ZZ Top-ish State of
Grace. Some of the slowed down numbers have charms as well, such as
Square One and the closing number The Golden Rose.
This album feels very quick, but it isn't really - it probably feels
that way because so many of Petty's latter albums have 15 songs and are
over 60 minutes in length. Had this album gone that same path, it
probably would have bogged things down a bit. As it is, some songs like
Turn This Car Around and Night Driver (did I mention all
the songs seem to be about driving or riding in a car?) tend to be a bit
tedious, so it's probably best that he kept it at the length that it is.
It's not a "Heartbreakers" album either, but as I've said in many of my
reviews of this artist, I can't really tell a difference. It
seemed like the only consistent Heartbreakers were Mike Campbell and Ben
Tench, and those guys seemed to be on his "solo" albums anyway (for the
record, Campbell is on this one, Tench is not).
A good addition to a very strong existing catalog.
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