"An exercise in restrained elegance": Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' Long After Dark, perhaps as it was always meant to be

A remastered Tom Petty classic, with previously unreleased and extra tracks

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition) cover art
(Image: © Geffen/UME)

You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music. From testing headphones to reviewing albums, our experts aim to create reviews you can trust. Find out more about how we review.

Sometimes overlooked, but only because of the company it kept in the Heartbreakers’ catalogue up to that point, Tom Petty’s fifth album is an exercise in restrained elegance. As pared back and unencumbered as Petty himself, the songs cut right to the creative quick, not least the darkly bubbling You Got Lucky and the chiming Straight Into Darkness, both brilliant if oblique singles.

It was also the album that introduced the world to bassist Howie Epstein, whose playing and harmony vocals were so ubiquitous in their sound that it was hard to imagine a time when he wasn’t a Heartbreaker. It’s difficult to gauge how deep the Petty vaults go, but if this reissue is any indicator then Heartbreaker fans have plenty to look forward to.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition) Album Trailer - YouTube Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Long After Dark (Deluxe Edition) Album Trailer - YouTube
Watch On

It comes with an extra 12 tracks – just to put that in context, the original had 10 – including seven previously unreleased songs, and extensive sleevenotes that include commentary from producer Jimmy Iovine and filmmaker Cameron Crowe.

Petty said there were some songs that didn’t make the initial release that would have made for a more rounded record, and this edition attempts to address that with some that were dropped from the original running order, including Petty’s version of Never Be You (a country hit for Rosanne Cash), Don’t Make Me Walk The Line and an up-tempo version of Ways To Be Wicked, a song he’d originally given to Lone Justice. There are some extraordinary French TV sessions, too, including Stories We Could Tell and a vibrant Keeping Me Alive. Magnifique.

Philip Wilding

Philip Wilding is a novelist, journalist, scriptwriter, biographer and radio producer. As a young journalist he criss-crossed most of the United States with bands like Motley Crue, Kiss and Poison (think the Almost Famous movie but with more hairspray). More latterly, he’s sat down to chat with bands like the slightly more erudite Manic Street Preachers, Afghan Whigs, Rush and Marillion. 

Read more
Roger Waters - The Dark Side of the Moon Redux Deluxe Box Set
“The live recording sees the piece come to life… amid the sepulchral gloom there are moments of real beauty”: Roger Waters' Super Deluxe Box Set of his Dark Side Of The Moon Redux
Frank Black - Teenager Of The Year cover art
"The sound of a man running wild in his own imagination": Frank Black's Teenager Of The Year still sounds brilliant 30 years on
Neil Young – Oceanside Countryside album cover
“A charming history emerges from Young’s immense archive”: Neil Young’s Oceanside Countryside uncorks some vintage late 70s vibes from deep within the cellar
Bad Company onstage in 1979
"Like remembering your 16-year-old self watch your parents dance at a wedding": Bad Company fail to recapture old glories on Desolation Angels
David Gilmour in front of a wooden fence
"I did start by saying: 'Do we need another guitar solo here?'" David Gilmour on boomer fortune and the making of Luck And Strange
The Moody Blues
“We weren’t ready to go into the studio… we got the feeling the label didn’t care about us any more”: Despite an uneasy line-up change, a lawsuit and no idea about singles, the Moody Blues returned to superstardom with Long Distance Voyager
Latest in
Foreigner at the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame in 2024
Foreigner will complete their Historic Farewell Tour with four different singers – and one of them has recorded Spanish versions of their hits
The cover of Classic Rock 339, featuring Pink Floyd
"It's the father and mother of The Dark Side Of The Moon!": The full inside story of Pink Floyd's Live At Pompeii - only in the new issue of Classic Rock
Asia
"The haters won’t stop us from doing what we do": Geoff Downes on Asia's new lineup and the band's future plans
Fleetwood Mac group portrait
"The soundtrack to the greatest rock'n'roll soap opera ever": The mightiest Fleetwood Mac line-up albums in one handy box
Pete Townshend - The Studio Albums cover art
"This collection embodies both the best and worst of Townshend the artist and arch conceptualist": An overview of the solo career of Pete Townshend, the man who never meant to have a solo career
Linkin Park 2024
Linkin Park launch "the best song we've ever made" Up From The Bottom
Latest in Review
Fleetwood Mac group portrait
"The soundtrack to the greatest rock'n'roll soap opera ever": The mightiest Fleetwood Mac line-up albums in one handy box
Pete Townshend - The Studio Albums cover art
"This collection embodies both the best and worst of Townshend the artist and arch conceptualist": An overview of the solo career of Pete Townshend, the man who never meant to have a solo career
The Horrors
Ghouls Aloud: The Horrors come back from the dead with "a dazzling nocturnal spectacle of sombre reflections and oozing catharsis"
/news/the-darkness-i-hate-myself
"When the storm clouds clear, the band’s innate pop sensibilities shine as brightly as ever": In a world of bread-and-butter rock bands, The Darkness remain the toast of the town
Sex Pistols at the RAH
"Open the dance floor, you’ll never get to do it again." Forget John Lydon's bitter and boring "karaoke" jibes, with Frank Carter up front, the Sex Pistols sound like the world's greatest punk band once more
Arch Enemy posing in an alleyway
Arch Enemy promised they'd throw out the rule book for Blood Dynasty. They didn't go quite that far, but this is the boldest album of the Alissa White-Gluz era - and it kicks ass