New album: Hypnotic Eye
Artist: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers
Label: Reprise/Warner Bros.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ “Hypnotic Eye” is an open letter to the garage rock that inspired them to plug in all those years ago.
The only thing working against “Hypnotic Eye” is the fact that Petty and his band have released so much high quality music over the years, their target audience’s collective hard drive is nearly full. Hopefully enough of Petty’s core fan base aren’t nostalgia zombies and will take time to inhale this strong new album.
“Hypnotic Eye” is Tom Petty & The Heartbreaker’s most overt studio nod to their 1960s rock roots. On the band’s 2009 “Live Anthology” box set, choice covers of Them and Booker T. & The MGs were highlights. The groovy fuzz-crunch of “Hypnotic Eye” is a loving testimony to the influence the halcyon years of rock and roll.
Guitarist Mike Campbell oozes rock and roll cool with riffs seemingly piped in from a universe where Howlin’ Wolf and The Electric Prunes might be playing on the same bill. Campbell’s barbed wire playing on “Fault Line” is some of the best of his career. On “Sins Of My Youth,” keyboardist Benmont Tench conjures lysergic musical beds around a hypnotic chord progression not incredibly out of step with Richard Wright’s work on “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun.”
None of this superb musicianship would be worth a nickel without Tom Petty’s great songs. There isn’t a radio single on “Hypnotic Eye” of “Refugee” or “Running Down A Dream” proportions, but as a whole these songs make for a solid album.
Although it’s a Luddite proposition in this day and age, but “Hypnotic Eye” is meant to be listened to in its entirety. Listening to these songs piecemeal just wouldn’t have the same impact.
Classic album: The Morning Lasted All Day
Artist: The Dream Academy
Label: Edsel/Real Gone Music
Rating: 4 stars out of 5
When The Dream Academy hit big in 1985 with “Life In A Northern Town” there was nothing else on the radio like it: A fragile pop tune about the then still obscure Nick Drake, featuring a choir and an oboe.
Described then and now as chamber pop, the debut album from The Dream Academy (co-produced by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd) tried to bridge the gap between the wistfulness of pop’s heyday and 1980s synthesizer textures. Fans who bought the album based on the rustic feel of “Life In A Northern Town” might have found more modern leaning tracks such as “Edge Of Forever” (featured in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) a bit jarring.
Production quibbles aside, The Dream Academy (Nick Laird-Clowes, Gilbert Gabriel and Kate St. John) were one of the most distinctive pop bands to grace the Top 40 in the 1980s. The group went on to record two more albums of merit, but for whatever reason failed to replicate the commercial success of their debut.
“The Morning Lasted All Day” compilation is a two-disc set that captures all of the vital tracks from The Dream Academy’s brief but notable recording career. Why “Indian Summer” or “Waterloo” weren’t hits is a mystery for the ages, but they are great nonetheless. Throw in a few unreleased gems featuring Gilmour on guitar and the brilliant new track “Sunrising,” and you’ve got yourself a great album that will hopefully shed light on a band that should have been appreciated more.
Jon Dawson’s album reviews appear every Thursday in The Free Press. Contact Jon at 252-559-1092 or www.jondawson.com.