"...I'm Finding Out..."
Originally
released in November 1982 on Vinyl and Cassette – Tom Petty's fifth studio
album "Long After Dark" seemed to slip through the cracks. While it
managed a top-ten placing Stateside - no one cared enough to notice in good old
Blighty. You just don't see British vinyl originals of it that much - and the
initial 1980's CD reissue (a non-remaster) disappeared off the shelves only a
few years after it was released.
Which
brings us to this fantastic sounding 2001 'HDCD' Remaster – a properly decent
audio overhaul - but yet again - overlooked in his canon of consistently good
releases. "Long After Dark" is a brilliant rock album with all the
trademark Petty hooks and catchy choruses - tune after tune hitting you with
their economy and brilliance. Deliver me indeed. Here are the details...
UK and USA released March 2001 – "Long After Dark" by TOM PETTY and THE
HEARTBREAKERS on MCA 112 446-2 (Barcode 008811244620) is a straightforward CD
transfer/reissue (mastered in HDCD) of the album (36:24 minutes).
1.
A One-Story Town
2.
You Got Lucky
3.
Deliver Me
4.
Change Of Heart
5.
Finding Out
6.
We Stand A Chance [Side 2]
7.
Straight Into Darkness
8.
The Same Old You
9.
Between Two Worlds
10.
A Wasted Life
"Long
After Dark" was released November 1982 in the USA on MCA/Backstreet
Records BSR-5360 and in the UK on MCA Records MCL 1818. It peaked at No. 9 on
the US LP charts and No. 45 in the UK.
The
booklet is ok – reproducing the lyrics of the original vinyl album’s inner
sleeve. The back inlay picture is different to the 80's issue but that’s about
it. However – that’s offset by the gobsmacking audio... Remastered by Joe
Gastwirt at Ocean View Digital from the original analogue master tapes - the
sound on this 'High Definition Compatible Digital' reissue (one in a series of
Petty Remasters) is just stupendous - clear, full of power and clarity and
ready to kick your stereo in its sub-woofer proverbials. Gastwirt has done a
truly fantastic remaster job here.
Co-Produced
by Petty with JIMMY IOVINE (who'd worked so successfully with the band on
"Damn The Torpedoes" in 1979) - "A One Story Town" opens
proceedings with a tale of faraway feelings and nowhere city - all wrapped up
in a driving set of riffs. The huge synth punch in "You Got Lucky" is
so clear that it almost feels intrusive – audio that's too damn good. But then
we get one of those fabulous Petty rockers - "Deliver Me" - where he
begs his girl to "...take this heart...and deliver me..." Another
belter follows - the faster-paced "Finding Out" - a shockingly good
headbanger that builds and builds (cracking harmony vocals too). Side One ends
on the clever voice-box guitar of "We Stand A Chance". Other winners
include the deceptively sweet "A Wasted Life" - a shuffler that gets
its hooks into and stays there. Both "Change Of Heart" and
"Straight Into Darkness" is the band firing on all sixes - brilliant
Petty rockers with huge sound (I love these songs and US radio played the hell
out of "Straight Into Darkness"). No time for pretty as it ends with
more monster riffage - the moody 'you haven't changed' song "The Same Old
You".
I've
always thought "Long After Dark" to be an absolute blinder of an
album and not nearly as dated as so much Eighties cack is. And it's cheap too
(use the Barcode provided above to get the right issue). You go TP...
