Playback (1995) 


 

Disc One 
 1. Breakdown
 2. American Girl
 3. Hometown Blues
 4. Anything That's Rock & Roll
 5. I Need to Know
 6. Listen to Her Heart
 7. When the Time Comes
 8. Too Much Ain't Enough
 9. No Second Thoughts
 10.Baby's a Rock & Roller
 11.Refugee
 12.Here Comes My Girl
 13.Even the Losers
 14.Shadow of a Doubt (A Complex Kid)
 15.Don't Do Me Like That
 16.The Waiting
 17.A Woman in Love (It's Not Me)
 18.Something Big
 19.A Thing About You
 20.Insider
 21.You Can Still Change Your Mind
 
Disc Two
 1. You Got Lucky
 2. Change of Heart
 3. Straight Into Darkness
 4. The Same Old You
 5. Rebels
 6. Don't Come Around Here No More
 7. Southern Accents
 8. Make it Better (Forget About Me)
 9. The Best of Everything
 10.So You Want to Be a Rock & Roll Star
 11.Don't Bring Me Down
 12.Jammin' Me
 13.It'll All Work Out
 14.Mike's Life/Mike's World
 15.Think About Me
 16.A Self Made Man
 
Disc Three
 1. Free Fallin'
 2. I Won't Back Down
 3. Love is a Long Road
 4. Runnin' Down a Dream
 5. Yer So Bad
 6. Alright for Now
 7. Learning to Fly
 8. Into the Great Wide Open
 9. All or Nothin'
 10.Out in the Cold
 11.Built to Last
 12.Mary Jane's Last Dance
 13.Christmas All Over Again
 
Disc Four
 1. Casa Dega
 2. Heartbreaker's Beach Party
 3. Trailer
 4. Cracking Up
 4. Psychotic Reaction
 5. I'm Tired Joey Boy
 7. Lonely Weekends
 8. Gator on the Lawn
 9. Make That Connection
 10.Down the Line
 11.Peace in L.A.
 12.It's Rainin' Again
 13.Somethin' Else
 14.I Don't Know What to Say to You
 15.King's Highway
 
Disc Five
 1. On the Street
 2. Depot Street
 3. Cry to Me
 4. Don't Do Me Like That
 5. I Can't Fight It
 6. Since You Said You Loved Me
 7. Louisiana Rain
 8. Keeping Me Alive
 9. Turning Point
 10.Stop Dragging My Heart Around
 11.The Apartment Song
 12.Big Boss Man
 13.The Image of Me
 14.Moon Pie
 15.The Damage You've Done
 
Disc Six
 1. Got My Mind Made Up
 2. Ways to Be Wicked
 3. Can't Get Her Out
 4. Waiting for Tonight
 5. Travelin'
 6. Baby Let's Play House
 7. Wooden Heart
 8. God's Gift to Man
 9. You Get Me High
 10.Come on Down to My House
 11.You Come Through
 12.Up in Mississippi Tonight

 

Following the commercial reaffirmation provided by Greatest Hits—a release that served as a timely reminder of Tom Petty’s extraordinary consistency over a decade and a half—the artist departed from MCA and entered into a new chapter with Warner Bros. Not to be outdone, and perhaps sensing that the catalogue was about to pass into other hands, MCA responded in kind with Playback, an expansive six-disc retrospective covering both the familiar and the obscure.

The first half of the set—Discs 1 through 3—presents a comprehensive sweep through Petty’s studio output, comprising all the expected hits and a generous helping of deep cuts and fan favorites. Sixty tracks in all, and taken on its own, this portion alone would constitute a definitive anthology. Here is the artist at full power: melodic, defiant, and reliably tuneful. It's a brisk reminder of how rarely he faltered across the span of multiple albums.

What follows, however, is where the set reveals its less disciplined ambitions. Discs 4 through 6 are devoted to rarities, outtakes, B-sides, early Mudcrutch demos, and assorted curios—many of which had, perhaps wisely, never seen release. While this sort of excavation has undeniable appeal for the devoted aficionado, the quality control becomes increasingly erratic. There are moments of intrigue—some alternate takes and acoustic sketches that provide insight into the working method—but much of it is ephemeral, the kind of material more suited to liner note trivia than serious reappraisal. One could reasonably argue that at least one, if not two, of these final discs might have been best left in the vault.

In attempting to be exhaustive, Playback risks bloat. It’s a classic example of how the box set era often confused quantity with significance. Yes, completism has its place—but so too does editorial discretion. For the price, one might have preferred a tighter four-disc set with more deliberate curation and less padding. Still, for those seeking the whole picture—fault lines and all—this remains a fascinating, if uneven, monument to an artist whose best work never needed any such embellishment.

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