Hypnotic Eye, released this week by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers is the band’s…uh…shit…I don’t…eighteenth album. Maybe? Twentieth?

Who really knows. All you do know is that Petty and company have been cranking out albums since the seventies and since then, albums have either been solo projects or Heartbreakers’ projects. Either way, they’ve been good projects and occasionally great projects. That Tom Petty fella might be one of the more reliable acts out there.

So given that he has released so many albums and given that he’s never really wandered off the path of swampy, southern rock, why should you check out Hypnotic Eye?

I’ll give you twenty good to fair to passing reasons why.

Reason number 1: Because it’s a good time rock album for a time that right now, ain’t especially good time.

Reason number 2: Because if you’re like me, it’s good music to listen to while constantly checking Twitter to see if Jon Lester has been traded. (He hasn’t yet.)

Reason number 3: Because when Petty is gone, we’ll miss his albums and wish there were more of them.

Reason number 4: Because you’ve listened to “Free Fallin'” enough!

Reason number 5: Because sun’s out, brah. Tom Petty makes perfect music for the summer.

Reason number 6: Because flip flops are comfortable. (Not totally related, but still…because flip flops are comfortable could kind of be a good reason to do anything.)

Reason number 7: Because that Nathan For You Starbucks shit isn’t really as funny as advertised. I mean, he just opens up a fake Starbucks. That’s it. That’s the joke.

Reason number 8: Because the lead guitar line in the song “Fault Lines” is bad ass.

Reason number 9: Because rock albums have become akin to a good slice of pizza- increasingly hard to find.

Reason number 10: Because we all don’t drive trucks, but almost all of us wish we did.

Reason number 11: Because the trailer for Interstellar is only two and a half minutes long.

Reason number 12: Because sports radio will really only make you dumber this time of year.

Reason number 13: Because the song “Power Drunk” makes you want to get power drunk.

Reason number 14: Because the cops will understand if they try to arrest you for public intoxication if you use I’m power drunk, like Tom Petty said to as a defense.

Reason number 15: Because Tom Petty is cooler than you.

Reason number 16: Because that new Spoon album is less than forty minutes long and you can’t listen to it too much and get sick of it.

Reason number 17: Because you should be grillin’ right now.

Reason number 18: Because “Forgotten Man” is a plain as day great effin’ rock song and there just aren’t that many songs like that anymore.

Reason number 19: Because Orlando Bloom…yes Orlando Bloom punched/shoved/tried to punch/tried to shove/got punched by/got shoved by/ Bieber proving that there are still somethings right in the world.

Reason number 20: see reasons 1-19 and repeat.

Categories: 20 Things, Music

Tags: 20 things, hypnotic eye, new music, these are reasons, tom petty, tom petty and the heartbreakers