Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Into The Great Wide Open (1991/2015)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/96 kHz | Time – 44:01 minutes | 975 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Geffen*
Exclusively on HDtracks, images of the master tapes are included with every download, along with a note from the remaster producer, Ryan Ulyate.
The Heartbreakers’ eighth studio album was also produced by Jeff Lynne with Tom Petty and Mike Campbell and was recorded at Rumbo Recorders in Canoga Park, CA. There were three singles released from this album: “Learning To Fly”, “Into The Great Wide Open”, and “King’’s Highway”.
Into the Great Wide Open is the eighth studio album by American rock band Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, first released in July 1991 (see 1991 in music). The album was the band’s last with MCA Records. The album was the second Petty produced with Jeff Lynne after the success of 1989’s Full Moon Fever.
The first single, “Learning to Fly”, became his joint longest-running number one single (along with “The Waiting” from 1981’s Hard Promises) on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, spending six weeks at the top spot. The second single, “Out in the Cold”, also made number 1 on the Mainstream Rock chart, albeit only for two weeks.
The music video for the title song starred Johnny Depp, who had moved to Los Angeles as a teenager to seek rock stardom, along with Gabrielle Anwar, Faye Dunaway, and Matt LeBlanc.
Since Full Moon Fever was an unqualified commercial and critical success, perhaps it made sense that Tom Petty chose to follow its shiny formula when he reunited with the Heartbreakers for its follow-up, Into the Great Wide Open. Nevertheless, the familiarity of Into the Great Wide Open is something of a disappointment. the Heartbreakers’ sound has remained similar throughout their career, but they had never quite repeated themselves until here. Technically, it isn’t a repeat, since they weren’t credited on Full Moon, but Wide Open sounds exactly like Full Moon, thanks to Jeff Lynne’s overly stylized production. Again, it sounds like a cross between latter-day ELO and roots rock (much like the Traveling Wilburys, in that sense), but the production has become a touch too careful and precise, bordering on the sterile at times. And, unfortunately, the quality of the songwriting doesn’t match Full Moon or Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough). That’s not to say that it rivals the uninspired Long After Dark, since Petty was a better craftsman in 1991 than he was in 1983. There are a number of minor gems — “Learning to Fly,” “Kings Highway,” “Into the Great Wide Open” — but there are no knockouts, either; it’s like Full Moon Fever if there were only “Apartment Song”s and no “Free Fallin’”s. In other words, enough for a pleasant listen, but not enough to resonate like his best work. (And considering this, perhaps it wasn’t surprising that Petty chose to change producers and styles on his next effort, the solo Wildflowers.) —Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Tracklist:
01. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Learning To Fly (04:01)
02. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Kings Highway (03:06)
03. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Into The Great Wide Open (03:42)
04. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Two Gunslingers (03:09)
05. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – The Dark Of The Sun (03:22)
06. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – All Or Nothin’ (04:05)
07. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – All The Wrong Reasons (03:45)
08. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Too Good To Be True (04:00)
09. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Out In The Cold (03:40)
10. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – You And I Will Meet Again (03:43)
11. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Makin’ Some Noise (03:26)
12. Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers – Built To Last (03:58)
