Album Reviews

Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ November 1982 LP on Backstreet/MCA, Long After Dark, was not exactly everyone’s immediate favorite back in the day — this, despite it hitting the Top 10, going Gold, and giving birth to several Top 40 hit singles, including the synth-heavy smash “You Got Lucky.” Even as I got deeper into collecting Petty’s complete catalog, Long After Dark often left me wanting a bit more as an end-to-end album listen — but I was never sure exactly what the i>problem was, as there are some great tunes on it.

Petty seemed to sense some level of unease from his listeners about the finished album, as he was quoted back in the day as saying, “There was some music recorded for Long After Dark that didn’t get on the record that I thought would’ve made it a better album. I left off [. . .] four things that I liked quite a bit. And probably a few more written that never even got in the door.”

Thankfully, a newly expanded 180g 2LP set dubbed Long After Dark – Deluxe Edition — which was released by Geffen/UMe on October 18, 2024 — goes a long way to improve on the core album as a listening experience, start to finish, with powerful bonus tracks and more sympathetic mastering. I will explore more about that assessment soon — but first, let’s unpack the DNA behind this new Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers release.

From the official press materials supporting this reissue package, we learn: “Long After Dark – Deluxe Edition features the newly remastered original album from the original analog master tapes, plus 12 rediscovered bonus tracks newly mixed by Petty’s longtime engineer Ryan Ulyate and boasts packaging designed by Grammy Award-winning designer Jeri Heiden, [and] liner notes by legendary rock journalist and Tom Petty Radio host David Fricke, with commentary from Jimmy Iovine and Cameron Crowe and iconic archival photographs by Dennis Callahan, Neal Preston, and Aaron Rapoport. The set [has been] released in a variety of configurations, highlighted by a limited edition TomPetty.com 2LP pressing on 180-gram red with black splatter color vinyl, housed in a numbered foil tip-on jacket with an exclusive lithograph. [. . .] a variety of additional vinyl options includes a 2LP on 180-gram black vinyl [and] a limited edition 1LP 180-gram turquoise color vinyl pressing (main album only) with double-sided lithograph of Blaze Brooks’ illustrations (available exclusively at indie record stores).”

Also, from the reissue credits and liners themselves (both located on the inner-left side of the gatefold), we learn that the creme-de-la-creme of mastering is behind this fine sounding new edition: Chris Bellman of Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood. This new 180g 2LP edition was manufactured in Germany (probably at Optimal, where UMe has been pressing a lot of its premier titles of late). Generally, the vinyl pressing is very good, dark, and quiet as it should be. That said, LP1, Side 1 of my copy of the main album is wee bit off-center — but that is not a dealbreaker, fortunately, as there was no dramatic wavering of the music apparent. (For additional perspective, AP editor Mike Mettler tells me his own LP1, Side 1 is, whew, perfectly centered.)

For what it is worth, this reissue is a really big improvement over my original stock copy Long After Dark LP, which is off-center on both sides. Vinyl from MCA (the purveyors of the album’s original Backstreet Records label) was notoriously bad in the late ’70s and ’80s, so I was not really surprised to notice it, now that I’m paying more audiophile-oriented attention to this level of detail.

That said, each new LP in the new set comes housed in its own audiophile-grade plastic lined sleeve, both of which are slotted in tandem with custom full-color glossy-print paper inner sleeves for each disc (and you can see them both, in the next two photos that follow in tandem below). The SRP for the 2LP Long After Dark – Deluxe Edition is a very reasonable $39.99 — and $20 per disc sounds more than fair, especially when you consider the aforementioned splatter red/black web-exclusive edition went for a whopping $79.99 (yes, “went for,” as it is already sold out). You can order the 2LP black vinyl edition via the Music Direct link here, or via the link graphic at the end of this review.

Like many of Petty’s pre-Full Moon Fever-era releases, Long After Dark was produced in a compressed, tight-sounding manner optimized for radio play. My original pressing was pretty punchy, but this never was an album I wanted to crank up real loud. Curiously, when I put the new 180g reissue on the turntable immediately after playing my OG copy, the playback volume was significantly quieter, so I had to turn up my amp to match it. Doing that, lo and behold! — Long After Dark opened up quite beautifully as I cranked up my amp, displaying nice dynamics, warmth, and some nice studio air apparent at points.

I went back to my original pressing to see if my memories of it were accurate, and, indeed, when I tried to play it loudly, the sound became very crunchy — almost digital-feeling. It was an uncomfortable listen. Thankfully, that is no longer an issue with this new pressing. The opening track, “A One Story Town” (LP1, Side 1, Track 1), is brighter, but also much fuller-feeling than the original. There are plenty of other moments to consider, such as the bass and drums on “Finding Out” (LP1, Side 1, Track 5), which are now bonafide room-rattlers. The cowbell clanks on “The Same Old You” (LP1, Side 2, Track 3) might make Blue Öyster Cult and The Rolling Stones jealous. And I’ll go on record: “Straight Into Darkness” (LP1, Side 2, Track 2) now sounds utterly Springsteen-album-worthy.

Perhaps my favorite moment on Long After Dark is the seriously skronky lead-guitar riffing throughout “We Stand a Chance” (LP1, Side 2, Track 1) — and the new deluxe edition delivers even more of that skronk! Seriously, this sound makes Dave Davies’ “little green amp” tone you hear on The Kinks’ 1964 breakthrough smash hit “You Really Got Me” sound like a Marshall amp stack, comparatively speaking — yet somehow it totally works, in this instance.

Taking a step back to reflect on that telltale skronk, it also feels a bit like a quasi-homage to Mick Ronson’s overdriven-but-similarly-boxy guitar tone on David Bowie’s “Suffragette City” (Side 2, Track 5 on the forever-classic June 1972 RCA LP, The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars). The tambourine shakes feel more 3D here as do the handclaps, which appear to be more alive and present in the room.

If all that wasn’t enough, we get a whole second album of tracks that didn’t make the cut originally — and there are some pure gems here! The batch of tracks recorded live in the studio at The Record Plant (in Los Angeles) for the French TV show Houba Houba are just outstanding. The country swagger of “Stories We Could Tell” (LP2, Side 3, Track 1) sets a sweet, and much more organic tone for this new album expansion. “Finding Out” (LP2, Side 3, Track 5) is a kicking version that feels even more Pettyesque than the original studio version, as does the French TV take of “Straight Into Darkness” (LP2, Side 4, Track 2).

“Never Be You” (LP2, Side 3, Track 2) reminds me of some of those great tracks Bruce Springsteen would give away to other artists but ultimately sound best in his own voice. This song — which was covered by both Maria McKee and Roseanne Cash — feels like what might have happened had Bruce and Elvis Costello had a pop-rockin’ love child. That said, I would have loved to have heard Ronnie Spector cover this one.

The second LP’s closing romp through The Troggs’ 1966 classic No. 1 hit “Wild Thing” (LP2, Side 4, Track 6) is epic — and that is not an easy task, given how both the original and The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s version set the rawk bar pretty high! Perhaps it’s the ultimate closer to a record that, in retrospect, was both encompassing Petty’s past and looking ahead to his future. In fact, this “Wild Thing” might have fit as a bonus track on TP&THB’s June 2010 LP on Reprise, Mojo, because it rocks that hard.

And that, at the end of the day, is truly a great thing about Long After Dark – Deluxe Edition — with it, fans first receive a dramatically improved version of the original album, offering much pause for reconsideration in its own right. Plus, we all get a bonus LP that stands tall alongside the core record while bridging the gap to what Petty and his band (and Petty the solo artist) would ultimately do next.

As for our ratings, this all leads me to give the Long After Dark – Deluxe Edition package a 10 for the Music (though AP editor Mike Mettler notes that, after listening to this new edition, his OG 8 for the Music has since been revised up to a 9), and I give it a solid 9 for the Sound (while Mettler puts it as an 8.5). Again, not bad for a record that many people — including myself (and Mettler) — have perhaps unfairly overlooked. Based on what we’ve heard here, we say it’s time to listen to Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers’ Long After Dark – Deluxe Edition with open ears and mind. This Deluxe Edition rocks, and you will not be disappointed. Can’t ask for much more than that from an expanded reissue, can you?

Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS
LONG AFTER DARK – DELUXE EDITION
180g 2LP (Geffen/UMe)

LP1, Side 1
1. A One Story Town
2. You Got Lucky
3. Deliver Me
4. Change Of Heart
5. Finding Out

LP1, Side 2
1. We Stand A Chance
2. Straight Into Darkness
3. The Same Old You
4. Between Two Worlds
5. A Wasted Life

LP2, Side 3
1. Stories We Could Tell (French TV)
2. Never Be You
3. Turning Point (Original Drums Version)
4. Don’t Make Me Walk The Line
5. Finding Out (French TV)
6. Heartbreakers Beach Party (Extended Version)

LP2, Side 4
1. Keeping Me Alive (French TV)
2. Straight Into Darkness (French TV)
3. Ways To Be Wicked (Denver Sessions)
4. Between Two Worlds (French TV)
5. One On One
6. Wild Thing