CD Review

Tom Petty's first solo album in twelve years, revisits the myth of the open road, as if to wrestle one more time with an ancient metaphor. Once eagerly riding "Into the Great Wide Open," Petty's characters are now drifting down the highway, lost in a world of uncertainty (in other words, they have grown up). Most songs on Highway Companion are moody and down-tempo, sparsely instrumented and minimal in arrangement. The powerful "Saving Grace" opens with a hard-edged Bo Diddley blues and sums up the overall sentiment: "And it's hard to say/Who you are these days/But you run on anyway." Gorgeously stripped to voice and guitar, "Square One" is Petty's most personal song ever, while piano-drenched melancholia of "This Old Town" makes Aimee Mann blush. On the sunny "Flirting With Time," Petty sings "This could well be your last stand" -- and it's hard not to think of the Rick Rubin-produced Johnny Cash: Like the late Man in Black, Petty is moving toward a kind of sparse sonic truth, sounding utterly alone, a bit world-weary and deeply human.

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