89. WILDFLOWERS by Tom Petty

Released in 1994, this record is considered to be Tom Petty’s best, with or without the Heartbreakers (though almost all of the Heartbreakers played on “Wildflowers”). A heartland, singer-songwriter album dropping in the middle of the grunge/alt-rock craze was definitely a bold move that, in hindsight, worked out just fine for Petty. A super deluxe box set was recently released that includes, among other things, another 10 original songs that were originally meant for the 1994 release. At the time of this writing, I hadn’t had a chance to fully digest the new material, but refer the reader/listener to it to enjoy and discover on your own. In terms of the original 15 songs, I like ‘Wildflowers,’ ‘Time to Move On,’ ‘Don’t Fade on Me’ and ‘Crawling Back to You.’