Southern Accents

Southern Accents is the sixth studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, released on March 26, 1985, through MCA Records. The album's lead single, "Don't Come Around Here No More", co-written by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, peaked at number 13 on the "Billboard" Hot 100. The song "Southern Accents" was later covered by Johnny Cash for his "Unchained" album in 1996.
Background.
Originally conceived as a concept album, the theme of "Southern Accents" became somewhat murky with the inclusion of three songs co-written by Stewart, and several others originally planned for the album left off. Songs cut from the track list include "Trailer", "Big Boss Man", "Crackin' Up" (a Nick Lowe cover), "The Image of Me", "Walkin' from the Fire" and "The Apartment Song". The first four (and a demo version of "The Apartment Song") were later released on the "Playback" box set. A studio version of "The Apartment Song" appeared on Petty's first solo album, "Full Moon Fever", released in 1989. "Trailer" was later re-recorded and released in May 2016 by Petty's other band Mudcrutch, on its second studio album, "2". "Walkin' from the Fire" was eventually released on the posthumous box set "An American Treasure" in 2018. The song "My Life/Your World" from "Let Me Up (I've Had Enough)" included several of the song's lyrics rewritten.
While mixing the album's opening track, "Rebels", Petty became frustrated and punched a wall, severely breaking his left hand. Subsequent surgery on his hand left him with several pins, wires and screws holding his hand together.
The album cover features an 1865 painting by Winslow Homer titled "The Veteran in a New Field".
A new version of the song "The Best of Everything" with a different arrangement and a previously unreleased verse was released as a single in 2018, before the release of the upcoming eponymous compilation album.
Critical reception.
In a three-out-of-five star review, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of "AllMusic" commented that while "occasionally, the songs work" and "Don't Come Around Here No More" and "Make It Better (Forget About Me)" expand [the band's] sound nicely", the record was too often "weighed down by its own ambitions".
In the "Los Angeles Review of Books", Connor Goodwin said the album is "deeply embedded in nostalgia for the Lost Cause."
Personnel.
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Additional musicians
Production