Before I get into this, I’d like to throw a brief recommendation towards the new tunes just posted by one of Detroit’s greatest rock and roll bands, the Dirty Americans. Surf on over, and give ’em a listen.

I just wanted to put up this post in case you’re feeling any skepticism about picking up the new Tom Petty release today, which is a reunion album with his pre-Heartbreakers project Mudcrutch. The Mudcrutch lineup features core Heartbreakers members Mike Campbell on guitar, Benmont Tench on keyboards, Petty (who moves to bass,) and original Mudcrutch members Tom Leadon on guitar/vocals, and Randall Marsh on drums.

I know that there are people that are hesitant about checking out new Petty, in fact, here’s exhibit A from a mention about the new Mudcrutch to a co-worker.

“i haven’t heard the mudcrutch record yet. it’s gotta be better than
petty’s last couple of stinkers…”

Mudcrutch – Lover Of The Bayou

And indeed it is. I particularly love the saloon style piano parts that are sprinkled throughout the album, and with Petty moving over to bass for the album, the bass is high in the mix, and vibrantly alive, as are the other players on this Mudcrutch disc. I’ve heard Wilbury comparisons, and I guess I hear a bit of that, but only with the musical interplay between the members of Mudcrutch. For those that are expecting this to be a straight out Heartbreakers record under the name of Mudcrutch, it isn’t. For me, it sounds like a Tom Petty record where Tom decided to throw out everything he learned about making albums, both solo and Heartbreakers. Instead, the Mudcrutch album sounds like what you might experience if you walked into a bar and a really great band was playing, that just happened to have Tom Petty sitting in in the lineup.

Make no mistake, Petty’s stamp is all over this album, and it does sound like a Tom Petty album, but it’s different. And it is a good kind of different. The sprawling track Crystal River has been written about, most often making mention that at 9+ minutes, it is the longest song that Petty has committed to tape in the studio. After hearing it, I don’t know that it needs to be 9 minutes, but I don’t mind it. It’s a good track, for sure.

Mudcrutch – Bootleg Flyer (live in Santa Barbara, April 2008)

Bootleg Flyer is a song that flies just as high as its title, and as I was hearing it I had the thought, 13 tracks into the Mudcrutch album, what a great driving album this is. In my opinion, you think of great “driving albums,” you think of albums like Full Moon Fever and Wildflowers, and I’d throw Into The Great Wide Open in there as well.

It’s been a while since Petty has made a great driving album, and it’s been a while since we’ve heard a great Petty album, period. Highway Companion had good points, but in the end, there were still tracks that I would have left on the side of the road. This time around, Petty succeeds, and on his own terms no less, with this Mudcrutch release.

I dig it. That’s my three word review 🙂

BEST TRACKS:

Scare Easy
Crystal River
Bootleg Flyer

As far as purchasing options, the CD comes in a beautiful digipak package (I never thought I’d say that about a digipak, back in the early 90s when they first came around,) and also is available on vinyl. The vinyl edition is a 2 LP 180 gram gatefold release that includes a “full dynamic range” audiophile CD in the package, which is exciting to me. The vinyl is a must buy for me, so if you’re looking for the best overall bang for your buck and you have a turntable, I would say that the vinyl is where it’s at for this one.

If not, Best Buy and the usual outlets are running this one on sale this week for as low as $9.99. And on a final note, for the kids that dig Itunes, there is a version that has 1 bonus track and 2 bonus videos.

Visit the official Mudcrutch website and hear a stream of the entire new album.

The Mudcrutch Story