--Ryan Young
----Released 16 October 2020 on Warner
In 1994, Tom Petty released Wildflowers. Originally it was intended to be a double album, an idea the label nixed, so he cut it down to 15 tracks and left 10 others on the cutting room floor. For years, he’d tease releasing the rest of the album, sometimes as Wildflowers pt2, or as a reissue with the original album. Three years after his death these songs are finally seeing the light of day in a reissue called Wildflowers and All the Rest.
Tom Petty was 43 years old and two decades into rock stardom when he dropped this record. Grunge was in vogue and Petty had accumulated enough hit songs to churn out whatever kind of nonsense he wanted, tour the old hits, and coast on his laurels. Instead, he spent two years crafting this album with Rick Rubin and the Heartbreakers (although this is technically a solo record, pretty much all the Heartbreakers played on it in some capacity). I’m hard pressed to think of another artist who turned in their masterwork at 43. Love him or hate him, he’s always oozed integrity. This is the man who fought his label over the price of his albums (label wanted a price hike, and he did not) and won. All this to say: no matter how successful he became, it really was all about the music.
The reissue encompasses the original album, plus the 10 additional tracks that were intended to be part of the double album; along with home demos and live recordings.
Generally speaking, I don’t like Rick Rubin as a producer. I think he over-produces the hell out of everything and is at least partly to blame for the “loudness wars,” but here he’s restrained. Everything sounds like a million bucks, but nothing is overcooked. It might be the best thing he’s ever produced. Electric guitars crunch when they have too ("Honey Bee") and shimmer when they don’t ("Crawling Back to You"). The acoustic guitar sound is among my favorites on any recording, ever. The string section that makes up the last minute and half or so of “It’s Good to Be King” is a hauntingly beautiful masterwork of orchestration in a rock song. I’ve been listening to this song for nearly my entire life and I still get chills. Every. Single. Time.
A small complaint, I don’t love the snare sound, but I think it mostly works for the style.
This record is an artist truly following his muse. Despite veering wildly from folksy acoustic ballads to bluesy riff-rock, it never loses focus. I think this could have easily been a double album; and considering his track record, I’m more than a little surprised he didn’t fight harder for it.
The demos here are cool. It's fun to see the band tweaking with the songs in the studio, even if it’s just the slightest variation. That’s one of my favorite aspects of playing music—taking a song and twisting the dynamics, tempo, or arrangement.
Tom’s “home recordings” are very cool. These aren’t typical demos; the recording quality is very high and it’s fun to hear some of more established and popular songs in their infancy. I’d love to get a glimpse of his home studio, I’m sure it’s nicer than any studio I’ve ever recorded in.
This reissue doesn’t feel like a cash grab, everything here is either vital or interesting. It could be intimidating for a new fan—If that’s you, I’d recommend checking out the original record (maybe include the 10 additional tracks if yer frisky). But if you’re a Tom Petty fan, or someone who is interested in hearing a rock band at the height of their powers, the bonus material is a real treat. Watch the video for "It's Good To Be King" below:
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