Into the Great Wide Open - Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Nothing cool about this post, teetering as it does on the verge of guilty pleasure. The bone of contention is of course Jeff Lynne's production technique. To many, a one trick load of old pony dispensing cheese and white noise snare sounds like bubble perms never went out of fashion. On the other side of the divide are those who concede the limitations - and let's face it, the worldwide consensus on taking Lynne out to the street and shooting him like a mangy English sheep dog for his Beatles Anthology "work" is unequivocal - like y brawd says, while acknowledging the paucity of his approach [close mic. the snare and far mic. the snare; now, compress the far mic. 2:1 and fold into the close snare track while using a 1/10 of a second tape delay between the two; REPEAT ON EVERY FUCKING SONG FROM 1974 ONWARDS], there are those who appreciate that when the production matches a certain kind of song, then something very magical happens. This is the case with the run of classic E.L.O. singles and it is the case with Tom Petty's soaraway melodies and expansive narratives on Into The Great Wide Open.

On second thoughts, given Ariel Pink's public endorsement of 80s airbrushed production, maybe there is a whiff of cool about this post. You the listener decide.

oddi wrth y brawd

makin' some noise