Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Hypnotic Eye

The thing that made those first two Heartbreakers albums so great was their pure economical rock and roll power. The longest track on any of those records just scratches four minutes. But nearly forty years on from their debut, the economy, as well we know, is currently somewhere in the shitter, so it’s fitting that the lyrics on Hypnotic Eye are often about being let down by the powers that be (“Pin on a badge,” he sings on “Power Drunk”, “and a man begins to change…”) – there’s a fair amount of rationing going on here, but just a little bit of making-do as well.

Maybe it’s ageism on my part, but it seems like Hypnotic Eye is paced to allow Petty to catch his breath every other song. In terms of energy, it’s less You’re Gonna Get It! and more Let Me Up (I’ve Had Enough). Cap’n Tom almost sounds every one of his sixty-four years on the lyrically petulant “American Dream Plan B”, and it’s scary to hear; maybe it’s a curveball, or maybe he’s just singing in character, but when he sings “I got a dream, gonna fight it ‘til I get it right” on the chorus, it’s hard to believe him, no matter how much ass the Heartbreakers are kicking behind him. The storytelling of Petty’s best work - say “Two Gunslingers” or the deathless “American Girl” - isn’t as present here either; “Red River” is a vintage Heartbreakers strummer, which paints a picture of a destitute woman with “a rosary and a rabbit’s foot…[which] don’t do the trick,” but all we really find out is that Petty wants this woman to meet him at the titular body of water and fix her up with some other voodoo magic. Like much of Hypnotic Eye, it’s compelling, but frustratingly incomplete.

Still, the whole thing hangs together well - the band have been constant champions of the long-player in the age of shuffle, and even the duds have their place here, especially when they get the chance to support highlights like the strident “All You Can Carry”. An escapist anthem, it sees Petty and his beloved running away from some vague apocalyptic scene and, rather than attack the track with Springsteenian bombast, the Heartbreakers are at their nuanced best - you can hear the wariness and fear in Mike Campbell’s soloing. On the flipside, ‘Forgotten Man’ brandishes its Bo Diddley beat like a switchblade, and sounds more determined than anything else here to not live up to its title.

You can’t spend three years making a record and then call it ‘immediate’, even if you’re one of the biggest rock and roll bands in the world. Hypnotic Eye sounds as carefully crafted as anything the Heartbreakers have ever done, but all too often, it comes at the expense of the effortlessness that made tracks like “The Waiting” and “I Need to Know” so thrilling all those years ago. Call it age, call it self-consciousness - hell, maybe call it making a new album for a world that doesn’t necessarily feel it needs one - but Hypnotic Eye is little more than a decent record with a few ideas above its station. When you’re walking down the pavement looking at the traffic, you don’t do a double take when you see a Ford Fiesta. Next time, guys, come out in a Cadillac. You’re the fucking Heartbreakers. Don’t be afraid to act like it.