Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Hard Promises [GEFFEN]

Why you'll love it

This remastered 180g pressing gives the band's warm, punchy sound plenty of room. Hard Promises reached No. 5 on the Billboard 200 and No. 3 in Canada, and went platinum in both countries.

This edition

• Remastered
• 180g vinyl

About the album

Following up a breakthrough is a delicate business, and Tom Petty went about it the sensible way: same band, same producer in Jimmy Iovine, and another fistful of songs built to last. Sessions moved between Sound City in Van Nuys, Cherokee in Hollywood and Goodnight in Los Angeles, with Shelly Yakus at the desk.

"The Waiting" opens the record with a chorus that half of North America can still sing on cue, and "A Woman In Love (It's Not Me)" followed it out as the second single, with Donald Dunn of Booker T. & the M.G.'s sitting in on bass. Stevie Nicks trades lines with Petty on the aching ballad "Insider" and adds backing vocals to the closer "You Can Still Change Your Mind," while Mike Campbell and Benmont Tench colour every corner of "Kings Road" and "Something Big." Ron Blair and Stan Lynch hold down the rhythm, and "Nightwatchman" and "Letting You Go" rode along as B-sides.

It's a band at the top of its game, tight and generous with the songs. Petty co-produced it himself, which means he had nobody else to thank for how good it sounds.

Also at Kops: more Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Backstreet / MCA / Geffen, a reissue of the 1981 album.