TAS Rated 4/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the October 2010 Issue of The Absolute Sound!
180g Double Vinyl pressed at Pallas in Germany and Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Studios!
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' first new album in 8 years!
Some time in their recent past Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers took a left turn. Maybe it was when Petty woke up in the night with the idea of reuniting his first band, Mudcrutch, to cut the album they never got a chance to make back in the early '70s. Maybe it was when the Heartbreakers assembled the mammoth multi-disc The Live Anthology, which detailed thirty years of concerts. Maybe it was when they gave all their home movies, outtakes and live footage to director Peter Bogdanovich to create the Grammy-winning four-hour career documentary Runnin' Down A Dream. There have been side projects and experiments since the band last went into the studio to cut a new Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album. With MOJO, they have taken their recent freedom and experimentation to heart. They have gone off the reservation and all signs indicate they aren't coming back.
The first thing that hits you about MOJO is that the spirit of the Mudcrutch sessions has carried on with the Heartbreakers. This is the sound of a band playing together in a room - not a studio - facing each other, all singing and playing at the same time. The music is alive, with no overdubs or studio trickery. What you hear is what they created on the spot at that time.
Tom Petty says, "With this album, I want to show other people what I hear with the band. MOJO is where the band lives when it's playing for itself."
As for the songs, MOJO showcases a wide variety of American music from rock n' roll to country and both electric and acoustic blues. And then there are the images in Petty's lyrics which slip in on the melodies and set up a home in your head: The barefoot girl in the high grass chewing on a stick of sugar cane, the run-in with the law that begins when a carload of buddies decide to party with the motel maids, and the hilariously audacious idea of opening an album with an electric blues rocker about Thomas Jefferson's love affair with Sally Hemings. Petty would probably chuck a rock at anyone who called him a poet, but he sure is a southern writer of humor and sensitivity.
MOJO has juice and guts but it also has some sweet balladry for the slow dancers and even a whacked-out reggae number that is unlike anything that Heartbreakers have done before. It's the kind of album nobody's supposed to be able to make anymore. It got here just in time.
"...Mojo is one of the year's great albums... the sonics are downright terrific. Not because the are going to satisfy a list of audiophile criteria, but simply because the recording excellently captures the sound of a well-oiled rock 'n' roll machine playing together at the height of its talents, with a remarkable freedom and passion. The overall balance is right on, and without spotlighting it captures the gorgeously rich characters and textures of these great vintage instruments, and does so with an unusual lack of the BS and manipulation typically heard from commercial rock releases. This one gets my top recommendation." - Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound, October 2010, Issue 206
Features:
180g Double Vinyl
Pressed at Pallas, Germany
Gatefold Stoughton jacket
Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Studios from the Uncompressed 24-bit 48 khz Files
Includes High Resolution Digital Download
Selections:
LP 1
1. Jefferson Jericho Blues
2. First Flash of Freedom
3. Running Man's Bible
4. The Trip to Pirate's Cove
5. Candy
6. No Reason To Cry
7. I Should Have Known It
LP 2
1. U.S. 41
2. Takin' My Time
3. Let Yourself Go
4. Don't Pull Me Over
5. Lover's Touch
6. High In the Morning
7. Something Good Coming
8. Good Enough
180g Double Vinyl pressed at Pallas in Germany and Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Studios!
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers' first new album in 8 years!
Some time in their recent past Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers took a left turn. Maybe it was when Petty woke up in the night with the idea of reuniting his first band, Mudcrutch, to cut the album they never got a chance to make back in the early '70s. Maybe it was when the Heartbreakers assembled the mammoth multi-disc The Live Anthology, which detailed thirty years of concerts. Maybe it was when they gave all their home movies, outtakes and live footage to director Peter Bogdanovich to create the Grammy-winning four-hour career documentary Runnin' Down A Dream. There have been side projects and experiments since the band last went into the studio to cut a new Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album. With MOJO, they have taken their recent freedom and experimentation to heart. They have gone off the reservation and all signs indicate they aren't coming back.
The first thing that hits you about MOJO is that the spirit of the Mudcrutch sessions has carried on with the Heartbreakers. This is the sound of a band playing together in a room - not a studio - facing each other, all singing and playing at the same time. The music is alive, with no overdubs or studio trickery. What you hear is what they created on the spot at that time.
Tom Petty says, "With this album, I want to show other people what I hear with the band. MOJO is where the band lives when it's playing for itself."
As for the songs, MOJO showcases a wide variety of American music from rock n' roll to country and both electric and acoustic blues. And then there are the images in Petty's lyrics which slip in on the melodies and set up a home in your head: The barefoot girl in the high grass chewing on a stick of sugar cane, the run-in with the law that begins when a carload of buddies decide to party with the motel maids, and the hilariously audacious idea of opening an album with an electric blues rocker about Thomas Jefferson's love affair with Sally Hemings. Petty would probably chuck a rock at anyone who called him a poet, but he sure is a southern writer of humor and sensitivity.
MOJO has juice and guts but it also has some sweet balladry for the slow dancers and even a whacked-out reggae number that is unlike anything that Heartbreakers have done before. It's the kind of album nobody's supposed to be able to make anymore. It got here just in time.
"...Mojo is one of the year's great albums... the sonics are downright terrific. Not because the are going to satisfy a list of audiophile criteria, but simply because the recording excellently captures the sound of a well-oiled rock 'n' roll machine playing together at the height of its talents, with a remarkable freedom and passion. The overall balance is right on, and without spotlighting it captures the gorgeously rich characters and textures of these great vintage instruments, and does so with an unusual lack of the BS and manipulation typically heard from commercial rock releases. This one gets my top recommendation." - Wayne Garcia, The Absolute Sound, October 2010, Issue 206
Features:
180g Double Vinyl
Pressed at Pallas, Germany
Gatefold Stoughton jacket
Mastered by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Studios from the Uncompressed 24-bit 48 khz Files
Includes High Resolution Digital Download
Selections:
LP 1
1. Jefferson Jericho Blues
2. First Flash of Freedom
3. Running Man's Bible
4. The Trip to Pirate's Cove
5. Candy
6. No Reason To Cry
7. I Should Have Known It
LP 2
1. U.S. 41
2. Takin' My Time
3. Let Yourself Go
4. Don't Pull Me Over
5. Lover's Touch
6. High In the Morning
7. Something Good Coming
8. Good Enough
