Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Long After Dark Deluxe Edition
★★★★
GEFFEN/UME
Something of an overlooked record in Tom Petty’s canon, Long After Dark arrived just as MTV started to supplant AOR as the primary avenue for bands like The Heartbreakers. The group responded in kind, broadening their palette with such new wave affectations as the synths that add a gilded nocturnal pulse to Long After Dark’s lead single You Got Lucky.
The sleek sound glosses over how the LP isn’t much more than a simple, old-fashioned rock’n’roll record, a collection of songs held together by robust riffs and an unyielding sneer. That attitude is amplified on the bonus disc on this double-disc expansion which captures an unvarnished Heartbreakers through a combination of cracking live-in-the-studio performances and worthy unreleased tunes, highlighted by the aching ballad Never Be You, the punchy pop of Don’t Make Me Walk The Line and the lean menace of One On One. Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Long After Dark Deluxe Edition is out 18 October on Geffen/UME.
ORDER: Amazon | Rough Trade | HMV
Tracklisting:
DISC 1
A One Story Town
You Got Lucky
Deliver Me
Change Of Heart
Finding Out
We Stand A Chance
Straight Into Darkness
The Same Old You
Between Two Worlds
A Wasted Life
DISC 2
Stories We Could Tell (French TV)
Never Be You*
Turning Point (Original Drums Version)
Don’t Make Me Walk The Line *
I’m Finding Out (French TV) *
Heartbreakers Beach Party (Extended Version)
Keeping Me Alive (French TV)
Straight Into Darkness (French TV)
Ways To Be Wicked (Denver Sessions) *
Between Two Worlds (French TV) *
One On One *
Wild Thing *
* previously unreleased
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Main picture: Aaron Rapport