Search - Tom Petty & Heartbreakers :: Anthology: Through the Years

Journey Through Petty's Past

Thomas Magnum | NJ, USA | 10/31/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers have already released two hits collections, 1993's single disk Greatest Hits and 1995's six-cd box set Playback. While the Greatest Hits was a nice collection, it left out a number of the band's hits and the Playback collection was really for hardcore fans. This Anthology collection is the perfect medium between the two. It has just about every great Heartbreakers song with a couple of Petty's solo hits sprinkled in without the alternative takes and unreleased tracks that clutter up a box set."

Great Compilation, Great Sound, Great Track Selections!

Frederick Baptist | Singapore | 02/04/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The problem with anthologies, especially those of still-performing artistes, is that you have to have a cut-off point and unless everything post cut-off totally sucks, you're bound to leave off some of the artiste's best work. That's why this album doesn't even pretend to call itself "Best of", "Greatest" etc; firstly because such an album title already exists for Tom Petty and secondly, this album very appropriately calls itself "Anthology" for that's what it is: a chronological representation of what Tom Petty has done up to a point in time.



What's the solution? Either wait for "Anthology Part 2" or like me, get this brilliant album and get the whole albums after this. You won't be doing justice to yourself being satisfied with only 2 or 3 tracks from "Wildflowers" anyway as that brilliant album is already a rock classic in the making and you really need to hear the whole album to appreciate just how good it is.



As for this album, the 34 tracks that are on 2 discs are very well selected and you even get the hard to find duet with Stevie Nicks, "Stop Dragging My Heart Around" here too. The sound quality of this remastered album is also very good seeing as how especially on disc one, the state of the old original masters cannot have been very good and you can only improve upon the master which is also why the sound quality on the later tracks on disc two sound a lot better.



The one downer seems to be the cardboard packaging that opens out into 3 folds with a booklet pasted on the second fold. It seems to me that they could have come up with a better quality design for such a great compilation and thankfully the old adage, "you can't judge a book by it's cover" certainly holds true here.



I see one reviewer complained about 2 discs being more expensive than one but unless you can tell me how you are going to fit 34 tracks onto one disc and seeing as how there are no filler tracks here which would make a second disc superfluous, I really don't know what there is to complain about except for the great value for money that this album really is.



Highly recommended for all Petty fans who want a sampler of what Petty has done before they became fans because of his work after "Full Moon Fever" but don't want to go back and get all the old albums."

Really good collection with almost all the Petty you need

Frederick Baptist | 11/09/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's funny how labels find ways to repackage a band's music long after they've departed for another company, and that's exactly what we have here. Petty left MCA for Warner, leaving the concise and almost perfect "Greatest Hits" collection as his final release. Then, they opened up the vaults and released a massive 6-CD set, "Playback," which had 3 CD's of hits and favorites, plus another 3 CD's of B-sides, live cuts, and rarities. Now, they've come out with this 2-CD set that's something of a compromise between the two.It collects most of the stuff from "Greatest Hits" (except for the nice but unessential cover of "Something In The Air"), and adds on another 17 songs. Petty's made enough great enough music to fit a comprehensive and definitive two disc collection, and this comes close to being that. There are plenty of welcome additions, mostly songs that, while lesser-known, stand as some of his best work: "A Woman In Love," "Rebels," "Best of Everything," "Straight Into Darkness," "Jammin' Me," and "It'll All Work Out" are included, and such solid albums as "Hard Promises," the really good but underrated "Southern Accents," and "Let Me Up" (which was completely overlooked in the "Greatest Hits" CD) finally get decent representation.However, there are a few great songs that were missed ("Louisiana Rain," his first great ballad, should be here), and what's a bit more bothersome is the inclusion of a few lesser songs that, while aren't bad, don't really sustain the high standard set by those classic singles. There's also the 'previously unreleased' song, which is often a scam to get fans to buy a CD that already repeats material they already own. Petty pulled the neat trick of making one of the two new tracks on "Greatest Hits" into a great hit in it's own right. However, while "Surrender" on this set isn't bad, it's no "Mary Jane's Last Dance," and I don't think it's worth buying this set just to get "Surrender."Still, if you're looking for a bit more than one CD of hits, and aren't willing to look through some his better albums (most of which are good, but all of which have a little filler), then this may be the best bet for you."