Tom Petty

Always the rebel, Tom Petty chooses a big axe to grind with The Last DJ, a collection that attempts to denounce the evils of the modern recording industry. While it's hardly a highlight in Petty's discography, the Midas touch of producer George Drakoulias treats the ranting to some grand moments. Standouts include "Money Becomes King," and the lush, piano-based "Dreamville."

On The Last DJ, Tom Petty sounds like the crankiest middle-aged punk this side of Neil
Young. "Well, you can't turn him into a company man/You can't turn him into a whore,"
Petty declares on the title track that ushers in his thirteenth studio album in twenty-six
years, a loosely constructed concept piece about how much the music industry sucks.
Like Young, Petty's petulance is tempered by classic-rock romanticism. His musi... More >

The guy who once revealed on national television that rock and roll died with Buddy Holly steps up and confronts the key social issues of the day: radio, stardom, and record executives, plus don't forget teen violence, child abuse, and satyriasis. His hero "don't want to change/what don't need to change," and f*ck you if your needs are different. Does Petty have the tunes? Sure, he always has the tunes. Does he whine them in that weird, self-pitying child-drawl? Sure, he regresses every time out. So which would I rather hear, catchy good-guy cant or a Clear Channel jock hyping some mythical Svengalified "angel whore who could learn a guitar lick"? More angel whores, please. Hell, I'll even take an angel. (Grade - C+)