Mojo
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Warner Bros., 2010
Review contributed by Sean McCarthy
With my first listen to Mojo, Tom Petty’s first album with the Heartbreakers for 8 years, I thought “this could have been a Bob Dylan record”.
It wouldn't be out of place somewhere between Modern Times and Together Through Life.
The album was recorded live (with no over-dubs to speak of) in the Heartbreakers “club house”, a room where the band hang out and lined floor to ceiling with instruments and amplifiers (many of them vintage).
Set up the drum kit, place a few mics, sound proof an office to house the mixing desk and you have yourself a studio.
Mudcrutch, Tom Petty’s first band, recorded their album there in 2008, and it lends both records that warm organic feel that only recording live with all the band members in one room can give.
There is a definite Chess Studio, Snake Pitt and rural south, rather than a Pro-Tools, Auto-tune and California vibe to Mojo.
As the Heartbreakers themselves confess, the songs on this record reflect the music they listen to and play when the band is together but doesn’t have anything to learn or rehearse.
The harmonica-guitar based riff opening the records first track “Jefferson Jericho Blues” reminds me very much of Dylan’s Obviously Five Believers from Blonde on Blonde (1966) and, for me at least, the comparisons don’t end there.
Although the lyrics in “Jefferson Jericho Blues” are a little bit confused as they start by introducing us to Thomas Jefferson who is in love with one of the maids, creeping out to the servants shack at midnight then suddenly disappears in the verse, never to be heard of again and replaced by Petty himself.
This song could have been a scathing commentary on the Southern attitude and racism, but rather it moves into a song about missing a girl and “time moving slow” and I can’t help but wonder why Thomas Jefferson and his maid were mentioned at all.
“No Reason To Cry” and “Something Good Coming” could certainly have been written by Dylan and Tom’s voice is even reminiscent of Dylan’s best work on Time Out of Mind, Love and Theft or Modern Times.
There is more than just bar blues tunes on this album and with 15 tracks and over an hour long there are bound to be some “fillers” on Mojo and, to me, songs like “Candy” and "Lover's Touch" don’t really add much in comparison to the rest of tunes on the record.
You’ll hear harmonicas, slide guitars and a Muddy Walters style stomp of course, but you’ll also hear gritty guitar rockers, a tinge of Led Zeppelin, (dare I say it) The Doors and more than hint of the Allman Brothers.
However, mention needs to be made of the inexplicable “Don’t Pull Me Over”.
This ‘reggae’ track’s slow groove owes more to Eric Clapton than Bob Marley, and although it isn’t the worst reggae song I’ve ever heard (that dubious honour goes to the Keith Richards and the X-pensive Wino’s cover of Too Rude on the 1998 Live at the Hollywood Palladium album), it sounds entirely out of place.
Over all this album does showcase an absolutely brilliant band doing what they do best and making the varying styles on this record sound not lazy, but easy and effortless (Don’t Pull Me Over not withstanding).
One of the objectives of the record was to feature Mike Campbell’s guitar a little more.
This guy can play guitar and plays brilliantly and the majority of its tracks provide an excellent forum for Campbell.
The blues seems an apt medium for the band to express themselves as they are all masterful musicians well versed with a variety of blues and rock roots.
This is an album with and sense of experience and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers seem ready to tap into a new kind of groove... one born in their past, but not dwelling on it.
Sean is a currently President of the Auckland Blues Club and is the bass player in The Jukes and The Flaming Mudcats.
