New Tom Petty

Great SQ on LP. More slick LA-session work and continuous improvement from the top journeyman in R&R. If Petty could just free himself from posing as a slick hipster posing as a country boy, he might write something original. I suppose it's cool that he gives the provenance of every vintage instrument played on every track, but blues it ain't.

For me Petty's main limitation is as a lyricist. So many cornpone daddys, mamas, devils moonshine. More self-pity than blues when suffering meaness, hurt & the high cost of living. So much runnin' from the law in flashes of freedom that feel more like California angst along the worn-out path of '70s Eagles. The musical arrangements and playing on Mojo have the high style and rootsy poise of Dylan's last few. And of course Petty can't escape his vocal similarity to Dylan. However as a lyricist he always suffers in the comparison and reads like a sheep in wolf's clothing.

A pissing contest with more down the leg than over the fence.

The SQ controversy is interesting, as both the Pallas pressing and recorded SQ seem excellent to me as well. Bill, is it possible that your negative opinion about SQ is attributable to the digital recording process in general as compared to analog recording? Although recorded in hi rez, there is a slight synthetic character (what I would call a digital "envelope") that perhaps no lover of the analog recording process can ever get over.

Bill, I think the program is to progress from ganster to rapper, not the reverse.