Mudcrutch 2

Editors’ Notes Tom Petty's second LP with his pre-Heartbreakers band is his loosest in years. 2 charts Petty’s personal history of rock ’n’ roll with top-down ease, from Buddy Holly to the Byrds, with shades of country (“The Other Side of the Mountain”), psychedelic soul (“Hope”), and Petty’s own big-sky balladry (“Dreams of Flying”) in between. Most impressive is how high the quality is given how low the stakes—it takes confidence to sound this casual.