Music

Daily Voice «

Press Clips

Daily Flog: Fuld shares his unbelievable pain with Congress

by Harkavy (9:22AM 10/07)

Fuld: 'I feel horrible about what happened'

by Harkavy (5:22PM 10/06)

Daily Flog: Celebrity roast of Lehman on Capitol Hill

by Harkavy (7:52AM 10/06)
Runnin' Scared

Scenes from the Cash Struggle: Yesterday at Wall Street

by Chloé A. Hilliard (11:20AM 10/07)

Salma Hayek Finally Outdresses Karl Lagerfeld

by Roy Edroso (11:13AM 10/07)

Protest, Bloggers Keep Heat on Willets Point Plan

by Roy Edroso (10:42AM 10/07)
Sound of the City

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: Black Gold's "Detroit"

by Zach Baron (1:30PM 10/07)

Interview: Kurt Wagner of Lambchop

(12:00PM 10/07)
La Daily Musto

HX Scandal Update!

by Michael Musto (1:00PM 10/07)

Bad Taste Alert: What Sarah Palin Probably Likes

by Michael Musto (9:00AM 10/07)
Fork in the Road

New This Week: Naya

by Sarah DiGregorio (9:47AM 10/07)
All City

Cluckatron Has a Prediction

by Camille Dodero (4:41PM 02/01)

» more blogs

Music

write to the editor | email a friend | print article | comment

Music

Here Comes Your 14th Breezy Breakdown

Mr. Petty inspires more Full Moon Fever, but not much else

Max Berry

Tuesday, July 18th 2006

photo: Danny Clinch

Like an airbrushed bird

Details:

Tom Petty
Highway Companion
American

Most Popular

You Can't Escape the Canvasser's Pitch
'Got a minute?' The young bleeding-heart carnivores who hunt you down on your lunch hour
The Coen Brothers Make Another Mockery with Burn After Reading
Remarkably consistent, there's nothing these boys can't hold up to ridicule
No Witness Protection for Mobster Turned Snitch Joe Campy. PS: He's Hiding in Plain Sight.
PPS: He has a web site.
Mickey Rourke is The Wrestler
The onetime Hollywood A-lister climbs back in the ring with Darren Aronofsky's latest
Midway Through the Toronto Film Fest, and Things are Looking Bleak
Oh, Canada

As teenagers, my friends and I spent our Saturday nights loitering in parking lots. While we waited for adventure to strike, Tom Petty's "You Don't Know How It Feels" rattled the frames of more parked cars than anything not written by Marshall Mathers. The song goes nowhere; the singer would go anywhere. He wants to run with us tonight on a moonlight ride because, as he's said before, he's tired of himself, and tired of this town. Highway Companion, Petty's 14th album, is the collection of road tunes its title suggests, and though those roads take him home, there isn't an "Oh hell yes" in sight. Ten songs in, he puts it bluntly: "This old town is a sad affair." Regardless, this rarely works as the heart-heavy traveling music Petty has in mind; while he flees or revisits dark corners in every song, Petty sings like he has nothing at stake. This breezy album is great for a cookout, but anyone who's ever tried to go home again will tell you it doesn't ring true. Pleasant but slight, it flirts with revelations it can't quite kiss. But it's appropriate that the stakes feel highest on "Big Weekend," the one that sounds most like a kid in a parking lot, doing his best to shout it: "I need a big weekend/Kick up the dust/I need a big weekend/If you don't run, you rust." Here comes my girl?