MUSIC REVIEWS
Tom Petty - Highway Companion
David Allun Jones
As most gray-haired rockers continue the fight against the world’s ills (Neil Young) or re-trace the footsteps of a previous entity (Bruce Springsteen, U2), veteran Tom Petty has opted on a different path. His third solo effort, Highway Companion, finds him seemingly reaching the end of his career, winding down and hitting the lonely roads for a self-reflective journey across the nation’s backlands. No longer concerned with the music industry maliciousness and semi-naked pop princesses he complained about on 2002’s The Last DJ, this final music incarnation of Petty is too pre-occupied with his own mortality, setting the concept for a strong final note from one of music’s greats.
Produced by Jeff Lynne, whose last collaboration with Petty yielded the modern day standard “Free Fallin’”, Highway Companion compiles smoothed over country-rock/ California rock creations with brief splashes of surging pop elements, all sharply embodying Tom’s lonesome ruminations on his life. As alive as the music can get, though, especially with upbeat tracks like the rocking opening number “Saving Grace” and loping blues groove of “Jack” reminding you of the best that classic rock and 60’s pop had to offer, Petty tends to bring the mood down. As if he’s unable able to shake the fact that time is continually passing by, the aged rocker embeds each track with some sort of downtrodden lyric about growing old (“Living free is gaining on me/ Can’t keep ahead of my dreams”, “You’re flirting with time baby/ But maybe time is catching up with you”). Still, his signature pinched vocal, sounding much more ragged than ever, finds pretty melodies to wrap itself around, attracting your attention even when you yearn to ignore the album’s depressing sense of conclusion.
Fans tired of the old fogey criticisms that Tom Petty has unleashed over the past few years will come away equally pleasantly surprised and hauntingly disturbed by Highway Companion. The album’s accomplished use of it’s man-on-the-road concept finds the man at his best artistically, but its spooky feeling of an impending finale may force one to take note on their own dwindling lifespan.
