Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers broke through spectacularly with Damn The Torpedoes. Released in 1979, their third album tightened everything that had made the band special into nine lean, beautifully crafted songs packed with ringing guitars, enormous choruses and Petty’s unmistakable blend of defiance, vulnerability and cool.
The opening run alone is ridiculous. Refugee arrives with that instantly recognisable keyboard pulse and one of Petty’s great choruses, Here Comes My Girl builds from conversational verses into pure romantic release, and Even The Losers turns bruised nostalgia into something triumphant. Don’t Do Me Like That gives the album its sharpest pop hit, while Century City and What Are You Doin’ In My Life? keep the guitars snarling.
Produced by Jimmy Iovine with Petty, Damn The Torpedoes sounds bigger and more muscular than the band’s first two records without sacrificing their looseness. Mike Campbell’s guitar work is impeccable throughout, Benmont Tench colours every corner with piano and organ, and Petty sounds completely assured at the centre of it all.
It remains one of the great American rock records: concise, melodic, tough and utterly free of wasted motion.
TRACKS:
Side A
Refugee
Here Comes My Girl
Even The Losers
Shadow Of A Doubt (A Complex Kid)
Century City
Side B
Don’t Do Me Like That
You Tell Me
What Are You Doin’ In My Life?
Louisiana Rain
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