Miss Piggy Lunchbox

I might have chased a couple women around
All it ever got me was down
Then there were those that made me feel good
But never as good as I’m feeling right now
Baby you’re the only one
That’s ever known how
To make me wanna live like I wanna live now

- Tom Petty, “The Waiting”

Is there anybody in the history of humankind that has better known how to celebrate life’s good times than Tom Petty? (Hint: No.)

Besides “The Waiting,” which is the best song ever, the other big takeaway from Hard Promises, the band’s fourth album, is that Stevie Nicks should have been in The Heartbreakers because when these two get together…well, you’ll recall they also did “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” together. Here they do “Insider” which is a crazy good song that’s just a little too good in a slow, reflective, unconventional way to be on a mix.

Or what if Tom Petty had been in Fleetwood Mac? It probably would have been awesome, because Tom Petty implies awesome, but I don’t know enough about Fleetwood Mac to flesh out this paragraph, which started so prominsingly, any more.

This is a great album, and probably one of the more underappreciated ones in the band’s oeuvre. I have to think that this album’s flown under the radar for a couple of reasons: popular music was in a very different place in 1981 than it was in 1979 (when Damn The Torpedoes dominated) and the absence of any really huge hits. “The Waiting” is probably the biggest such hit. After that, you might recognize “A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me),” possibly “Insider,” and probably nothing more.

After that you get “A Thing About You,” a jubilant rocker, and a couple more that have “Insider”-itis: songs that are really good but unconventional enough that they throw you when the so-good-at-being-conventional Petty does them. “You Can Change Your Mind” is just like “Insider,” where you love it but you’re not sure if you should. The verses are awesome, you know that, but when he whines out the title, is it awesome or lame? “Letting You Go,” which might be about Seattle circa 2008 (“It’s raining on your summer home”), is a blend of Petty’s jingly, Orbison-y pop stuff and his jangly rock anthems that is a bit like a piña colada. The recipe sounds great, but when you taste it, you’re just not quite sure…no, you love it, but wait…something…hmmm.

“The Criminal Kind” is the only clunker, and that’s not even that bad. So you’ve got about 33% awesome, 33% is-this-awesome?, 33% really good, and 1% didn’t need. Add in excellent sound (Petty’s always got great, effortless sounding sound), divide evenly into two sides, put the best songs at the beginning and end of each side, and you’ve got a solidly four-lunchbox album.

Rating:

Mixers: “The Waiting,” “A Woman In Love (It’s Not Me),” “Letting You Go,” “A Thing About You”
Non-keepers: “The Criminal Kind”
Filed Between: Damn The Torpedoes and Full Moon Fever

Tags: 1981, 4 lunchboxes, Best Song Ever, CD reviews, music

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 30th, 2008 at 10:26 am and is filed under CD reviews, music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.