Tom Petty – Wildflowers & All The Rest (Deluxe Edition) (2020) [FLAC 24bit/44,1kHz]

The deluxe edition ofWildflowerscontains 54 tracks, 8 unreleased songs, and 24 unreleased alternate versions. In addition to the 15 track original album (remastered), the deluxe edition contains the albumAll The Rest(10 songs from the originalWildflowerssessions), a full CD of 15 solo demos recorded by Petty at his home studio, and a disc of 14 live versions ofWildflowerssongs recorded from 1995 – 2017.

More than a quarter-century after Tom Petty’s Wildflowers was first released, it can finally be heard the way the singer-songwriter intended. When he turned in 25 songs, hoping for a double album, Warner Bros. asked him to pare it down to one. But just three years past his death, his family and Heartbreakers bandmates Benmont Tench and Mike Campbell (technically a solo release, Wildflowers features most of the band) have restored the record to its original glory and added in a trove of home demos, alternate takes and live tracks—some 70 songs in all. Produced by Rick Rubin while Petty’s decades-old marriage was crumbling and he was reportedly battling heroin addiction, the 1994 release remains one of the all-time great break-up records; heard all together, the extended LP (the All The Rest part is produced Petty’s longtime engineer Ryan Ulyate) Petty is a deeper devastating beauty. “New” tracks like the Byrds-y “Leave Virginia Alone,” tender “Something Could Happen” and psychedelic Beatles-meets-Wall of Sound “Somewhere Under Heaven” are a comfortable coda to classics such as “You Don’t Know How It Feels” and “It’s Good to Be King.” Extra track “Hope You Never” is a gorgeous, direct complement to old favorite “Only a Broken Heart.” As perfect as the original album has always played, it’s hard to imagine not including the swaying After the Gold Rush-esque “Hung Up & Overdue” (with backing vocals by Beach Boy Carl Wilson) or sunny, jangling “California” (which also shows up in a demo version, with a telling extra verse: “Don’t forgive my past/ I forgive my enemy/ Don’t know if it lasts/ Gotta just wait and see”). Dig into the home recordings, and it’s an even bigger mystery why the harmonica-inflected “There Goes Angela” and plaintive “There’s a Break in the Rain (Have Love Will Travel)” weren’t contenders over, say, the Celtic-flavored “Don’t Fade on Me.” Chalk part of that first-listen awe up to the intimacy of these solo demos, which also cast a new, revelatory light on the gently folksy title track and “You Don’t Know How It Feels.” Live non-album favorites “Girl on LSD” and “Drivin’ Down to Georgia” are captured here, along with a blistering “Honey Bee” and lovely takes on “You Wreck Me” and “Crawling Back to You.” Tench has recalled Petty calling Wildflowers “the best record we ever made.” Now it’s even better. – Shelly Ridenour

Tracklist

1. Tom Petty – Wildflowers (2014 Remaster)
2. Tom Petty – You Don’t Know How It Feels (2014 Remaster)
3. Tom Petty – Time to Move On (2014 Remaster)
4. Tom Petty – You Wreck Me (2014 Remaster)
5. Tom Petty – It’s Good to Be King (2014 Remaster)
6. Tom Petty – Only a Broken Heart (2014 Remaster)
7. Tom Petty – Honey Bee (2014 Remaster)
8. Tom Petty – Don’t Fade on Me (2014 Remaster)
9. Tom Petty – Hard on Me (2014 Remaster)
10. Tom Petty – Cabin Down Below (2014 Remaster)
11. Tom Petty – To Find a Friend (2014 Remaster)
12. Tom Petty – A Higher Place (2014 Remaster)
13. Tom Petty – House in the Woods (2014 Remaster)
14. Tom Petty – Crawling Back to You (2014 Remaster)
15. Tom Petty – Wake Up Time (2014 Remaster)
16. Tom Petty – Something Could Happen
17. Tom Petty – Leave Virginia Alone
18. Tom Petty – Climb That Hill Blues
19. Tom Petty – Confusion Wheel
20. Tom Petty – California
21. Tom Petty – Harry Green
22. Tom Petty – Hope You Never
23. Tom Petty – Somewhere Under Heaven
24. Tom Petty – Climb That Hill
25. Tom Petty – Hung Up and Overdue
26. Tom Petty – There Goes Angela (Dream Away) [Home Recording]
27. Tom Petty – You Don’t Know How It Feels (Home Recording)
28. Tom Petty – California (Home Recording)
29. Tom Petty – A Feeling of Peace (Home Recording)
30. Tom Petty – Leave Virginia Alone (Home Recording)
31. Tom Petty – Crawling Back to You (Home Recording)
32. Tom Petty – Don’t Fade on Me (Home Recording)
33. Tom Petty – Confusion Wheel (Home Recording)
34. Tom Petty – A Higher Place (Home Recording)
35. Tom Petty – There’s a Break in the Rain (Have Love Will Travel) [Home Recording]
36. Tom Petty – To Find a Friend (Home Recording)
37. Tom Petty – Only a Broken Heart (Home Recording)
38. Tom Petty – Wake Up Time (Home Recording)
39. Tom Petty – Hung Up and Overdue (Home Recording)
40. Tom Petty – Wildflowers (Home Recording)
41. Tom Petty – You Don’t Know How It Feels (Live)
42. Tom Petty – Honey Bee (Live)
43. Tom Petty – To Find a Friend (Live)
44. Tom Petty – Walls (Live)
45. Tom Petty – Crawling Back to You (Live)
46. Tom Petty – Cabin Down Below (Live)
47. Tom Petty – Drivin’ Down to Georgia (Live)
48. Tom Petty – House in the Woods (Live)
49. Tom Petty – Girl on LSD (Live)
50. Tom Petty – Time to Move On (Live)
51. Tom Petty – Wake Up Time (Live)
52. Tom Petty – It’s Good to Be King (Live)
53. Tom Petty – You Wreck Me (Live)
54. Tom Petty – Wildflowers (Live)