Description
External Combustion, Campbell’s second post-Heartbreakers album, is quite possibly, even better than the first. Right from barnstorming opener Wicked Mind to powerful waltz-time closer Electric Gypsy via the Jeff Lynne soundalike Cheap Talk, hard rocker Dirty Job (featuring Ian Hunter) and the blissful country groove of State Of Mind (featuring Margo Price), this is a thoroughly enjoyable, high quality album that any Heartbreakers fan is going to get a real buzz from. Excellent riffs, tight musicianship and a superb groove throughout.
Other than a guest spot for Benmont Tench giving a rip-roaring piano solo on Lightning Boogie, the Dirty Knobs are a band of Mike’s choosing and not just the Heartbreakers carrying on without Tom. Naturally, Tom Petty’s loss was a huge one for Mike, for the fans and for the music world in general, but what Mike’s albums are proving is just how important and integral he was to the sound, songwriting and production in Petty’s band and, although Tom cannot be replaced or replicated, Mike’s Dirty Knobs are the nearest we’re going to get to having a Heartbreakers fix in 2022… and it’s nothing less than grin-inducingly brilliant. If the Heartbreakers had released this album, people would have been calling it their best for decades.
