Aquarium Drunkard Presents: Full Moon Fever - 25 Years Gone
Tom Petty's first solo album, sans The Heartbreakers, Full Moon Fever, was released 25 years ago this month. Released at the tail end of the 80s - when rock still dominated the airwaves - with aid of MTV, this album effectively soundtracked the decade's flip. Remember, this was pre-Nevermind. Looking back at the album, scratch that, listening to the album now, it comes off as one of the great last gasps of ROCK AND ROLL ubiquity. These songs were everywhere; sure, maybe not in the same way that Thriller was, but more along the lines of Born In The USA, released 4 years prior. Hitting number 3 on the Billboard 200 (and 5x platinum in the U.S., alone), the album doubled down as a critical success, as well as a commercial one.
Sonically it's aged incredibly well. Clean and not over-the-top, the production (helmed by Jeff Lynne, Tom Petty and Mike Campbell) avoids the majority of the decade's recording sins that have rendered so many of the album's contemporaries near unlistenable. As for the record itself, with five singles released, it comes off as a near 'Greatest Hits' collection. As noted previously, these songs (and their accompanying videos) seemed to be everywhere at the time. As such, it's interesing/refreshing to revisit Full Moon Fever in its entirety, as a whole. This week's playlist does just that.
ABOUT AQUARIUM DRUNKARD
Based in Los Angeles, Justin Gage is the founder of the long-running, eclectic music blog Aquarium Drunkard. In addition to the blog you can catch his weekly radio show, Fridays, on SIRIUS XMU satellite radio -- noon-2pm EST.
Gage is also the founder of Autumn Tone Records and works as a music consultant and supervisor.
