Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers - Mojo

Do you like good old-time rock and roll? Like Zeppelin? Like the Allman Brothers? Like...Tom Petty? It's a fact: a lot of people young and old still want the straight-up, old-fashioned rock. We can't understand why there's not more of it coming out today. But here's one that qualifies. You'd swear this was recorded in 1973. It's got that classic '70s rock sound. Bits of Zeppelin, the Allmans, J.J. Cale. And the recording was done live with no overdubs. This vinyl version also includes a free download, which is key because this is a record you're definitely going to want to jam to in your car.

Some time in the last few years Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers took a left turn. Maybe it was when Petty woke up in the night with the idea of reuniting his first band, Mudcrutch, to cut the album they never got the chance to make back in the early '70s. Maybe it was when the Heartbreakers assembled the mammoth multi-disc The Live Anthology, which detailed 30 years of concerts. Maybe it was when they gave all their home movies, outtakes and live footage to director Peter Bogdanovich to create the Grammy winning four-hour career documentary Runnin' Down A Dream. There have been side projects and experiments since the band last went into the studio to cut a new Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album. With Mojo, they have taken their recent freedom and experimentation to heart. They have gone off the reservation and all signs indicate they aren't coming back. The first thing that hits you about Mojo is that the spirit of the Mudcrutch sessions has carried on with the Heartbreakers. This is the sound of a band playing together in a room - not a studio - facing each other, all singing and playing at the same time. The music is alive, with no overdubs or studio trickery. What you hear is what they created on the spot at that time.