Hoping to repeat the success of Full Moon Fever, Petty corralled the same team of Campbell, Jeff Lynne, and himself to produce its follow-up, Into The Great Wide Open. Unlike Full Moon Fever, however, Into The Great Wide Open is not a Tom Petty solo album, but an album by Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers. This distinction is crucial. Loosing the overdub-happy Lynne on a band that relies so much on feel, intuition, and spontaneity results in an album of compromises, concessions, and miniature mutinies. No one described this conflict better than Petty himself, who told Bogdanovich, “Jeff likes to make a rhythm track and then — sort of like a sketch becoming a painting — add colors to it; [the Heartbreakers] are Polaroid. They want everything right there.” With this in mind, Into The Great Wide Open is far better than might be expected given the nature of its experimental, borderline sadistic premise. Mismatch or no, the album’s first four tracks are terrific: the exquisite “Learning To Fly” is a better single than anything on Full Moon Fever and features some of Petty’s most assured vocals; “King’s Highway” is almost as good, recalling the reckless, sun-stroked youthfulness of “American Girl”; the title track, though best enjoyed apart from its dated-upon-arrival video starring Johnny Depp, is “Free Fallin'” with a Magical Mystery Tour makeover; and “Two Gunslingers” jingles with an irresistible, autumnal grace. Unfortunately, things quickly become middling and monochromatic, with Lynne and the Heartbreakers each vying for control, seeming to settle on listlessness.