Tom Petty

Angel Dream (Songs and Music from the Motion Picture "She's the One") (2021)

 


 1. Angel Dream (No.2)
 2. Grew Up Fast
 3. Change the Locks
 4. Zero from Outer Space
 5. Asshole
 6. One of Life's Little Mysteries
 7. Walls (No.3)
 8. Thirteen Days
 9. 105 Degrees
 10.Climb That Hill
 11.Supernatural Radio
 12.French Disconnection
 

 

 
  

I had a feeling this sort of thing was coming. Now that Tom Petty’s no longer with us, it seems inevitable that the corporate suits would start rifling through the vaults, trying to squeeze out every last dollar from whatever they can slap his name on. Welcome to the era of posthumous recycling, where even Petty—an artist who prided himself on quality control—isn’t immune to a little creative bookkeeping from the label brass.

The original She’s the One soundtrack from 1996 was always the odd duck in Petty’s catalog. A decent collection of songs attached to a film that, let’s be honest, nobody remembers. It slipped through the cracks back then, and the general public more or less forgot it existed. So now we get this so-called “new” album—Angel Dream—which, let’s not kid ourselves, is a reshuffling of that original release with a few tweaks and a shinier package. It’s hard not to be cynical. Feels a little like someone in a boardroom said, “Hey, let’s dust this one off, change the running order, and make sure Petty’s face is front and center on the cover.”

In fairness, there was an opportunity here to right some wrongs. Soundtrack albums often suffer from being disjointed—multiple versions of songs, interludes, throwaway cues meant for background scenes. A proper reimagining could have streamlined it into a cohesive record. But that’s not what happened. Instead, we get slightly altered mixes of songs we already had, with a few bonus tracks tacked on (the best being a cover of J.J. Cale’s Thirteen Days) that could’ve just as easily been included on a rarities collection. It’s not offensive, it’s just unnecessary.

Petty’s legacy doesn’t need this kind of tampering. He left behind a rock-solid body of work that speaks for itself. Let’s hope the decision-makers don’t keep chipping away at the edges just to pad quarterly reports. He gave us more than enough. Let the music—and the man—rest easy.