The 1970s were just as good as the 1960s for Rock music. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers released this album in 1976. Is it worth a listen? Let’s find out.

We begin with Rockin’ Around (With You) which begins with an interesting drum beat before a Rockabilly style riff enters. Before long, singing enters and we have a very similar sounding piece to The Beatles or John Lennon here, especially in the singing by Tom Petty. The whole piece is rather interesting and fantastic to listen to. A nice Rock song to begin this album with.

Following is Breakdown with its slower pace, organ and Fender guitar goodness. It is an excellent tune to hear and sounds really awesome. The chorus is quite anthemic and poppy. A short and sweet Pop/Rock piece that is catchy and awesome. Great music to hear, the singing here is especially 1970s. Nice tune.

Hometown Blues is next, with a syncopated drum intro and launches straight into a very Bluesy sounding piece. This is really beautiful and awesome and sounds like early Rock and Roll updated for the 1970s. Excellent song, and very listenable, this is awesome. Nice to hear. A great semi-love song with a Country Blues feel to it, this is top. Great listening.

The Wild One, Forever is next, with some acoustic strumming and guitar harmonics in the intro. It is a brilliant piece of beautiful music that sounds really good. After a bit, drums kick in and we are taken to the next level here. Tom Petty sings his heart out here and does really well. The rest of the band are professional at their skills as well. Overall, a great listen and musically joyous. The outro is very beautiful.

Up next is Anything That’s Rock ‘N’ Roll comes next and is instantly recognisable. It actually sounds a lot like The Rolling Stones Jumping Jack Flash which is interesting. A driving and awesome song with heavily overdriven guitar, this is really awesome 1970s Rock music. A brilliant Rock statement, with some awesome guitar playing throughout. “Anything that’s rock and roll is fine,” indeed.

Following is Strangered In The Night which is an obvious reference to Frank Sinatra. It kicks off with drums before some catchy and nicely delivered guitar parts enter. It’s incredibly catchy and awesome music, no matter if you are a first-time listener or a big fan. Incredibly beautiful, powerful and wonderful all at the same time, there are some really excellent sounds throughout this song. Groovy and catchy, this is superb. Nice tune, all the way to the fade-out.

Fooled Again (I Don’t Like It) comes next and is a slower tune for this album. This is a wonderful piece of music, and sounds incredible, although the subject matter lyrically is dark. Keyboard and organ are here, along with the clean(ish) electric guitars here. Tom Petty does some incredible screaming here. A great song to play on a road trip, or a similar adventure, this is awesome and straightforward Rock music that is totally underrated. Nice job boys. The guitar riff played throughout is really cool. An awesome effort.

Mystery Man begins with electric guitar heavily processed with effects and slide guitar. This piece is much more traditional than you’d expect and sounds very bluesy. A terrific effort, and very much aimed at a more traditional musical audience, this is quite good. The slide guitar solo is just gorgeous. Fender Tele sounds galore, this is really good. A beautiful and lovely tune, another solidly good listen here.

Next is Luna with a keyboard and very much Progressive Rock sounding intro, before this song gets underway. It is a longer song here, at nearly four minutes long. A wonderful listen and a concise musical effort, this is really interesting listening. A song about spacey demons as such, this is very clever and excellent listening. Great to hear this tune, a nice listen from start to finish. The Progressive Rock sounding outro sounds again, odd.

The last number here is American Girl which is a nice uptempo number to end this album with. With fast drums, frenetic riffs and a short song length, this is wonderful listening. Nice to hear an album that runs at such a short time, all these tracks are demanding to be repeat listens. This song is a great listen for those who like beautiful, simple, short and melodic music. Nice effort, a back to basics, Rock and Roll style tune. The harmonies after the guitar solo are really quite good, finishing off this song in a wonderful way.

This is a nice listening experience that sounds clean, bright, youthful and energetic. It also only lasts around half an hour, a perfect listen if you dislike lengthy Progressive Rock music. A fine and joyous musical listening experience, definitely worth hearing now and again.

Simple.

8/10