Following a half-decade of collaborations with the ornate
Jeff Lynne,
Tom Petty decided it was time to strip things back for 1994's
Wildflowers. He swapped
Lynne for
Rick Rubin, the
Def Jam founder who started cultivating a production career outside of hip-hop and metal in the early 1990s, then hunkered down with a team of musicians anchored by his longtime lieutenants
Mike Campbell and
Benmont Tench. Together, they achieved a sound that was lean and sinewy, fulfilling the goal of getting
Petty back to the basics, but the singer/songwriter wrote too much material for a single album. After toying with the idea of releasing a double CD,
Petty whittled
Wildflowers down to a single disc that ran the length of a double album, a considerable indulgence for a rocker who usually restrained himself to a tight 40 minutes (or, on the case of the first two
Heartbreakers albums, a quick half hour). The extra space allows
Petty to stretch out and breathe, to spend as much time strumming sun-kissed folk tunes as he does rambling through ramshackle rockers and heavy-footed blues.
The Heartbreakers specialized in clean, efficient rock & roll, and while this solo project echoes their sound -- how could it not with
Campbell and
Tench aboard --
Wildflowers is distinguished by its casual gait. Whether it's the highway anthem "You Wreck Me" or the stoner shrug of "You Don't Know How It Feels," the performances benefit from this space to breathe, while the larger canvass helps steer attention to the character sketch of "To Find a Friend," the sardonic wit of "It's Good to Be King," and the bittersweet undercurrent of "Crawling Back to You." Other, earlier albums provide a greater rock & roll wallop, but thanks to its extra space,
Wildflowers captures the full range of
Tom Petty as a singer, songwriter, and rocker. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
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