Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers — Long After Dark (Deluxe)
Qobuz reissue review (October 2024)
The studio output of Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers rather neatly aligns with the labels that released their albums. First were the band’s two records on Leon Russell’s Shelter Records that captured a raw but confident version of their unique sound. Those were followed by three releases on the MCA-distributed Backstreet Records — Damn the Torpedoes (1979), Hard Promises (1981), and Long After Dark (1982) — throughout which the band rapidly evolved and clarified their foundational sound to both creative and commercial achievements. While that success would lead to a stint of albums on MCA that were absolute monster hits (Into the Great Wide Open) or ambitious misfires (Southern Accents), and then to elder statesmen status on Warner Bros. (Echo, The Last DJ), it’s widely understood that the trio of Backstreet albums were the Heartbreakers at their peak. To be fair though, Long After Dark is probably the least-best of those three, not quite rising to the iconic status of Damn the Torpedoes or the near-classic status of Hard Promises. Recorded rather hurriedly in a striking-while-the-iron-is-hot mode, Long After Dark has a bit of a weary vibe to it that’s striking from the first notes of album-opener “A One Story Town,” which, despite its presumptive rock ’n’ roll posture, sounds more blasé than biting. Even the album’s biggest hits — “Change of Heart,” “You Got Lucky” — are content to stick with midtempo moods. There are still burly crowd pleasers peppered throughout, like “The Same Old You,” “Finding Out,” and “Deliver Me,” but Long After Dark primarily showcased a band that has comfortably eased into their purple period and, exhausted from the incessant grind of the previous half-decade, decided to ease off the pedal a bit. While some may think that signaled a decline in quality control, this approach actually illustrated just how great Petty and the Heartbreakers were at this juncture. Far from “phoning it in,” the band instead delivered a dynamic and warm offering that reflected exactly where they were artistically at this point in time, with groove-oriented rockers like “Between Two Worlds” and “Straight Into Darkness” standing among some of their best work. This deluxe edition benefits not only from a tasteful remaster, but also the inclusion of several cuts that Petty considered for the album (and later regretted excluding), as well as some alternate takes and television performances.
