Moore on Pop
By Susan Moore
The Australian Woman's Weekly - August 26, 1981
RECORD PICK: Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers -- Hard Promises. (Backstreet Records). This album is a rejuvenating jangle of music and ideas, structured simply for best effect.
Petty's lyrics carry a subtle punch. The Waiting is perhaps the outstanding track, but most are pretty persistent, including A Thing About You and The Criminal Kind. Stevie Nicks, from Fleetwood Mac, does a whimsical duet with Petty on Insider but it's a song that never quite gets off the ground.
Tom Petty perpetrates a free-range style of rock -- unprententious, but insistent and sincere.