10 Perfect Soft Rock Albums Of The '90s

Around the start of the '90s, Tom Petty had to be wondering if he had anything more to say. Though he was still doing just fine off of the success of Full Moon Fever, his relationship with the Heartbreakers had gotten a bit fractured on the past few releases, along with his marriage steadily collapsing around him. The cure for everything is writing songs though, and Wildflowers gave us tracks that felt much more lived in than what Free Fallin had to offer.

Working with Rick Rubin for the first time, this is the kind of record that sounds like it could have been recorded over a weekend, with every single instrument sounding a lot more organic than your traditional stylized rock records. While Tom didn't really set out to make a record like this, every single one of these tracks had a much greater weight to them, whether that meant the string sections brought in on It's Good to Be King or eventually closing things out with a straightforward piano ballad with Wake Up Time.

If you look at what's going on in the lyrics here, the characters Tom writes are a lot more down on their luck than before, either going through a transitionary period or having to deal with moving on to something better. These characters aren't going to be in for easy rides after these songs are over, but we all find our way back to the wildflowers eventually.