Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers – You're Gonna Get It!

Great pressing w/excellent channel separation. OG 1st pressing is the one to go for given it is typically available in good condition under $10.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers display stylistic cohesiveness, yet nearly define nothing else, lacing You’re Gonna Get It! (the second time the band has chosen to emphasize the album’s title with an explanation mark) the record with images from J.J. Cale to the Guess Who, and even then Petty seems to be holding his cards facedown on the table. All of this fills the album with a great deal of expectation that’s certainly tantalizing, yet never seems to get fleshed out.

One of the most strange aspects of this record was that it never managed to reach out and embrace listeners, as if Petty omits or neglects a personal sense of required narrative elements, relying instead on repeated catch phrases and cryptic imagery to move the tension through to an undefined conclusion. Petty’s vocals in no way come across front and centered, more like he’s ri through the floorboards, up through the music, making a short appearance and then disappearing back into his musical ether.

If anything saves the album it’s the music, though that same music nearly fooled some fans into contending that Petty & The Heartbreakers were just one more in an endless series of lightweight New Wave bands, due primarily to their use of synthesizers and the wearing of skinny neckwear. Sonically the album is filled with that enthusiastic Byrds’ jingle jangle, a signature sound that nearly defines Petty’s vision as classic rock. Aside from that, it’s all mostly straight ahead rock n’ roll bathed with a new energy, allowing for almost no breathing space.

There is nothing eccentric or inaccessible about the album or the band, though Petty and his troupe stand in the middle of nowhere, as they’re not sexy, they’re not glam, they really don’t fit into the New Wave category, and they’re too recent to be lumped in with those classic rockers. If anything, they come across as eclectic, rooted somewhere between the attitudes of punk and rock, smirking and ambitious, while keenly aware that they know more than three chords. That being said, along with a sentiment I’ve expressed before, that being that the Heartbreakers have not given fans a defining album here. Nevertheless, when they do create a perfect single, it’s nothing short of stellar. This of course made them the darlings of music critics and reviewers like myself, people who saw a great deal of potential and were wide-eyed-ly holding a collective breath, waiting on that elusive raptured album. All of this acclaim and adulation came entirely from their live shows, where Petty and the boys would splinter the bandstand five nights a week, as if they were on a downhill train headed across America with no breaks to slow their relentless pace. Yet again … leaving a Heartbreaker’s show sent fan after fan running to record stores, only to be totally frustrated with the fact that what they were hearing on record did not jive with what they’d seen on stage just the night before.

With the knockout singles being “Baby’s A Rock n’ Roller” and “Listen To Her Heart Beat,” all and all, You’re Gonna Get It! is merely an extension of of their initial release, they don’t take any chances here, creating a fairly solid album that while doesn’t overstay its welcome, one does not walk away from the listening experience mesmerized, instantly ready for a second spin.

Review by Jenell Kesler