Tom Petty rules.
Petty owned the 70s. It was this decade when Petty crawled out of the Florida swamps and kicked us in the ear drums with jangle-rific rock n' roll that infected us with push play, rewind, repeat. "American Girl" & " Refugee" will out live us all. In the 90s, Petty had a massive rebirth ignited by the late 80s iconic solo album, Full Moon Fever. "Learning To Fly" had us strumming along as they went to the top of the rock charts, Johnny Depp and Faye Dunaway were making video cameos, and indie filmmakers were hiring the band to score soundtracks. Like the decade did for other 70s icon, John Travolta, the 90s reminded us why we loved them in the first place.
Twenty years down the road, TP & the HBs were as dominant as ever. But in between the 70s and the 90s, Petty took the road less traveled. The 80s may be Petty's most subversive decade. The 80s were owned by MTV. Petty couldn't dance like Michael Jackson, and he couldn't wear a dress (or not wear) like Madonna. He couldn't rap like LL Cool J and claymation just wasn't his thing. But that didn't mean Petty and the boys weren't churning out music that stood on par with the best of their career.
Here are the 11 Best Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers of the 80s:
- Rebels (Southern Accents)
- A Woman In Love (It's Not Me) (Hard Promises)
- Insider (Hard Promises)
- Change Of Heart (Long After Dark)
- The Waiting (Hard Promises)
- Deliver Me (Long After Dark)
- It Ain't Nothing To Me (Southern Accents)
- Runaway Trains (Let Me Up I've Had Enough)
- You Got Lucky (Long After Dark)
- We Stand A Chance (Long After Dark)
- Jammin' Me (Let Me Up I've Had Enough)
Buy Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers new album,
Hypnotic Eye...now!!!
Coming up with a "best of" list for Jenny Lewis is more complicated than it seems. Jenny has had such a rich, complex musical career, it's challenging to narrow it down to one specific aspect. First you have her stint with Rilo Kiley, an amazing noughties band, which only cracked the surface for exposure. You have her solo career, which is really only one album, since Rabbit Fur Coat is more of a collaboration album with the Watson Twins and Jenny and Johnny is a duet album with Jonathan Rice. Then there are all her guest appearance for bands like Postal Service, Bright Eyes, and Elvis Costello. So where do I start? Should I do an exhaustive list of all the best songs of Rilo Kiley or just a slice of her solo section? What about her movies and TV shows? I couldn't decide...so let's just do them all.
The 11 Best Songs By Jenny Lewis:
Fun Fact: The Raveonettes last album, Observator, was inspired by a three day drug binge at Venice Beach by lead singer Sune Rose Wagner.
It's been a weird year in music. There's actually been a lot of great music...but nothing that has yet to stand above the rest. There's been no real consensus on what albums are 2014's calling card. From site to site, it seems there's a lot more variety than most years. And my top 11 is no different. While there seems to some shared love for James Vincent McMorrow, Against Me!, Cloud Nothings, and The War On Drugs, my favorite album of the year (the infectious Broken Bells) is nowhere to be found on any list. The Jack White peaks into a couple lists but has been widely slammed, probably because the album was made for vinyl and listening to any other way takes it down a notch. Strangely, it happens to be my favorite non-White Stripes Jack White recording to date. I've seen Pure X and Conor Oberst get a couple mentions (albeit low on lists). White Sea and First Aid Kit are two budding artists hitting their strides, yet fail to get mentions. Last on my list is the addictive EP by the band Movement. Everyone's raving about How To Dress Well (which is another good album) but I feel like Movement is doing the same thing but is already leaps and bounds ahead. But this is the great thing about music...there's something for everyone to love.
Happy 4th! Enjoy songs from the albums below...plus a few other good tracks from this year.