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11. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers – Hypnotic Eye


This is actually one of the Heartbreakers’ strongest albums. We don’t often like to think of bands who qualify for AARP status as putting out important work that measures up to their early careers, but Petty & Co. are doing so here. Hypnotic Eye takes the blues lessons they learned from their previous album, marries them to a 60’s rock sensibility, and turns up the snarl. This is an angry album. It’s cynical, but in an older-and-wiser way as opposed to the youthful cynicism of Petty’s first two albums. But that snarled delivery of Petty’s is satisfying no matter the cause. “American Dream Plan B” says what most all Millennial are thinking as they fill out a job application they know is going to lead to nowhere. “Power Drunk” & “Burnt Out Town” cast shade on government abuse big & small. But it’s not all angry – “Red River” is some Florida swamp, True Detective mystic shit, and “Fault Lines” is the most dynamic Petty songs in terms of rhythm section I’ve ever heard. This album is consistently strong top to bottom, arguably his best album since “Into the Great Wide Open,” and is a deserving choice for Petty’s first Billboard #1 album (seriously, THIS one is only his first #1 album).