Tom Petty thank you so much for driving hard through all the issues and delivering your righteous vision to us in the form of musical bliss. How can I thank you enough? I'll spend a lifetime reveling in your music. Maybe that’s the kind of thanks he was looking for and so we have MOJO.
Oh yeah we are going to talk about this album. I'm happy and we are lucky the band was well established enough to say hey here's a new album all on our terms our music our writing. This is what we want and so we have before us a collective artistic vision. A righteous ripping album that delivers on all fronts.
MOJO gets the party started with a Bo Diddly romp and sardonic lyrics that rip at a cultural icon with truth. Classic Tom lyrics and ripping good time rhythm and blues. Mike’s guitar is in a strip down mode and we get flashes of Chuck Berry along with a raging harmonica and driving drum kit what’s not to love? The song closes out in a grand short sharp crescendo and then we slide effortlessly into a mood changer First Flash of Freedom.
Here we get some sort of Jeff Beck opening with a Gregg Allman Berry Oakley Dream’s bass line and I’m up and noticing. The seascape that follows has all the ear marks of a wandering sublime sojourn. Tom’s lyrics like an overdue train satisfy mightily upon arrival. I’m definitely feeling the ABB here and I use it as a descriptor. That subtle bass line holding plenty of room for Benmont’s organ and Mike’s major scale climb. Yes the guys are writing their own tunes but I think, I suspect we have an album of homage and respect to their influences, peers and those who have gone before. Isn’t that like Tom and the Heartbreakers? The Jeff Beck/ABB merger of styles is spellbinding and well done.
Back to the grove we go with Running Man’s Bible and I’m hearing a serious Booker T & the M.G.’s vibe with Robin Ford like blues riffs smoky in tone and style. Heavy syncopated rhythm riffs punctuating classic organ keys and staccato lead lines. A lovely surge of guitar wrapped up in a long searing organ note and we are back to the crunchy swing rhythm. This is a way cool melody with lots of sway and swagger with jazz overtones in the swanky refrain. We float along on the outro as Mike punctuates unsustained notes.
The Trip to Pirates Cove has a quick opening drum lick and we are into the LA Woman scene of the Doors. I totally hear more than a nod to Riders on the Storm and I love it. After repeated listen this song has risen to the top for me. This is my jam. Tom’s at it again with a phenomenal set of lyrics. I got a friend in Mendocino and its getting close to harvest time and we all smile knowingly. Benmont is channeling Ray Manzarek beautifully I mean I’m having a religious experience as Mike flirts with Robbie Krieger licks back in the mix. This tune is a melodic soul warming thing of beauty.
Candy lifts the atmospheric veil into a classic blues deliberate bop and I’m getting a huge whiff of JJ Cale with those relaxed understated riffs. Tom sings about Eldorado’s, cornfields and moonshine and it gets you over to that south west Texas frame of mind.
The surprise to me and what really knocks me out is the next tune No Reason to Cry. This tune could fit squarely on an Arlo Guthrie album. Sound strange? We’ll I’ve listened to a lot of Arlo Guthrie in my day and he is a national treasure as well. Tom’s voice and lyrics right here on this song deliver one of those Arlo spiritual love ballads in such a fine fashion it brings me to tears even as Tom is singing there is no reason to cry. The poignancy of this song is not to be denied. The band lays down such a sweet subtle lullaby blanket of music for this love song to lay on. It’s beautiful and if you are not familiar with Arlo go listen to some of his music. I recommend the exploration as the tears well up in my eyes again sorry Tom.
Turning on a dime I Should Have Known It sounds like it belongs on Physical Graffiti right down to the Jimmy Page riffs and tone and aren’t you pumped by that? I am. The band delivers on the classic syncopation of many classic Led Zeppelin tunes. Boneham would be proud! Bron Yr-Aur Stomp and an acoustic guitar tease and they move seamlessly to another tune keeping that whole Zep vibe. Works for me and we ride right on to U.S. 41. Classic guitar tones, lots of slide and periodic harmonica riffs mark this tune with outlaw lyrics. This is a serious set of riff heavy tunes not to be missed.
Takin’ My Time stomps in with the origin a massive heavy John Lee Hooker beat that never lets up driving its heel into the dirt floor and grinding out the guitar. We are deep in the Delta now.
Let Yourself Go is another driving little tune that swings and I’m hearing many many influences crossing over at the heart of this song dare I reference the Doors again. This is an excellent tune although I’m moving onto reggae (?) Tom and the Heartbreakers slip into a Peter Tosh groove that makes you kind of wish they did a whole reggae album. They own each of these modes they are slipping in and out of without pretense and with authority and it’s fantastic. The song is called Don’t Pull Me Over Tom humor and wisdom all rolled up into one. I love the little sarcastic bastard.
Lover’s Touch is a great swinging blues slow romp followed by High in the Morning an authoritative work which features Tom's lyrical genius and the band locked in a serious groove. You know Mike is going to make his move and he brings the Steve Cropper licks right in at the end.
What strikes you next as you listen to Something Good is Coming is the stark spirituality of Tom Petty. He talked about hope but I believe there was something more he was trying to say with songs like these. There’s a beauty here a pastoral tone and a resignation and that bittersweet feeling is on us in a minute. Tom wasn’t just about rock n roll. Tom’s writing was about love, hope, getting up again and being able to see past all the hypocrisy, lies and subterfuge into the light of an oncoming sunrise. After all we can’t keep the sun from shinning. And after we come upon enlightenment and reach a state of nirvana what are we supposed to do with our moment in time?
We rock that’s what we do. Tom and the Heartbreakers close out with an I Want You/She’s So Heavy Lennon and Harrison guitar scream called Good Enough. The lyrics get right to the heart of the matter. The moment. The moment is what we live in and it’s good enough for me. If she marry’s into money she’s still gonna miss me and that’s good enough for me. Mike rips the guitar neck in a melodic searing high end scream driving the strings over the top of the guitar pushing all that emotion and energy forward as the rhythm guitars climb down the fret board in classic wave crashing fashion and we fade out…. such is life.
I love this album the Mojo is righteous and flying close to heaven. It belongs in the Pantheon of Music (a temple dedicated to all the gods) with Abbey Road, Physical Graffiti, Fillmore East and Dark Side of the Moon.
Paul
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