Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Hard Promises

Cover art included, liner notes not included

"Damn the Torpedoes wasn't simply a culmination of Tom Petty's art; it happened to be a huge success, enabling him to call the shots on its successor, Hard Promises. Infamously, he used his first album as a star to challenge the record industry's practice of charging more for A-list artists, demanding that Hard Promises should be listed for less than most records by an artist of his stature, but if that was the only thing notable about the album, it would have disappeared like Long After Dark. Instead, it offered a reaffirmation that Damn the Torpedoes wasn't a fluke. There's not much new on the surface, since it continues the sound of its predecessor, but it's filled with great songwriting, something that's as difficult to achieve as a distinctive sound. The opener, 'The Waiting,' became the best-known song on the record, but there's no discounting 'A Woman in Love (It's Not Me),' 'Nightwatchman,' 'Kings Road,' 'Insider,' and 'The Criminal Kind,' album tracks that would become fan favorites. If Hard Promises doesn't have the sweep of Damn the Torpedoes, that's because its predecessor was blessed with good timing and an unusually strong set of songs. Hard Promises isn't quite so epochal, yet it has a tremendous set of songs and a unified sound that makes it one of Petty's finest records." — AllMusic

Producer's Notes:

The Hi-Res (24bit 96K) remastering of the Tom Petty catalog reveals a level of detail that was only previously heard by a select group of musicians, producers and engineers in the studio. It’s as close to the sound of original stereo master as you can get. We’re very happy with the way it came out, and believe it’s an important way to preserve the legacy of this great body of work.

If hearing the highest possible sound quality is important to you, then this is where you’ll get it.

The remastering was done in the fall of 2014 by Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman Mastering. (Brian Gardner did Highway Companion.) I supervised it and Tom approved it. Great care was taken to find the highest quality masters and transfer them with minimal EQ and little or no dynamic range compression. We went with whatever tape sounded the best –mostly the original first-generation masters but in a few cases, second-generation “EQ copies”*.

To allow for full dynamic range, and to let the music “breathe” the Hi-Res versions have about 6-8db less digital level than a typical “loud” peak-limited CD or mp3. To enjoy these albums to their fullest extent, play them back though a good system and turn up the volume.

With this increased level of detail and sonic impact, we hope you'll enjoy rediscovering these great albums as much as we did!

—Ryan Ulyate, April 2014

* Everything in the catalog was generated from the original first-generation masters except: Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, You’re Gonna Get It, Pack Up The Plantation (reels 1-3) and Southern Accents. These were mastered in Hi-Res from second-generation “EQ copies”. These source tapes include any EQ, level and dynamic processing added (with the approval of the album’s producers) during the original mastering sessions.