This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Tom Petty (vocals, guitar, ukelele, piano, bass); Scott Thurston (guitar, lap steel guitar, ukelele); Mike Campbell (guitar, bass); Benmont Tench (piano, organ, keyboards); Ron Blair (bass); Steve Ferrone (drums).
Additional personnel includes: Lenny Castro (percussion); Lindsey Buckingham (background vocals).
Producers: George Drakoulias, Tom Petty, Mike Campbell.
This is an Enhanced CD, which contains both regular audio tracks and multimedia computer files.
Money and its corrupting effects on rock music are the subject matter on much of THE LAST DJ, the umpteenth Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers album since the band's eponymous 1976 debut. The singer is shocked--shocked!--to find just how insidious the green stuff's effects are on the music business. On hearing this, a listener might reasonably wonder if Tom Petty has spent the last 30 years under a proverbial rock, but being a Tom Petty album, of course, tunes and songcraft are beyond reproach and much may be forgiven.
Both songwriter and listeners find themselves on more familiar ground with "When a Kid Goes Bad," about the kind of kids that make the headlines after criminal misadventures with firearms and the like. The broad rock & roll landscape of "Blue Sunday" is vintage Petty in its minimalist retelling of a brief encounter on the road. "Lost Children" is a heartfelt prayer that develops into an extended guitar jam. Ultimately the plain, unvarnished pop of "You and Me" reveals Tom Petty doing what he does best--telling a simple story simply.

Rolling Stone (10/02, p.67) - 4 stars out of 5 - "At once nostalgic and forward-looking, THE LAST DJ is quintessential Petty, by turns strident and starry-eyed."
Entertainment Weekly (10/11/02, p.83) - "...Basically an album-length rant about greed and corruption in the music biz....about as entertaining as polemical pop music can be..." - Rating: A-
Uncut (12/02, p.130) - 3 stars out of 5 - "...[Petty sings] with rawer passion than the genre usually allows..."
Mojo (Publisher) (12/02, p.108) - "...A sage and solid record then...anyone who's ever dug Petty's considerable craftsmanship can approach it with confidence..."