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Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers have scored their first US number one album with their latest release “Hypnotic Eye”. The album also topped the Canadian album chart and debuted at number seven in the UK.

“Hypnotic Eye” sold 131,000 copies in the week ending August 3 according to Nielsen SoundScan, making it Petty’s best sales week since “Wildflowers” sold 161,000 in the week after Christmas in 1994.

Petty recently discussed “Hypnotic Eye” with NPR’s Melissa Block:

It’s observational. I think it has a lot to do with American culture, without getting too strict about it or trying to be preachy. I don’t really take a side; I just invented characters that had their points of view…

I just tried to kind of explore this gap between the poor and people that get so wealthy that making more money really wouldn’t change an hour of the rest of their lives. And yet they’re obsessed with making more money, regardless of how that affects other people.

He also described how The Heartbreakers have evolved over the years:

There’s a lot of things. In Hypnotic Eye, one of the things that I was most pleased with, and that I really wanted to make happen, was what we didn’t play — the amount of space in the arrangements. The more air in the arrangement, the bigger the track sounds to me. We didn’t try to create walls of sound on this one; it was more like sonic textures.

I like to create lots of different guitar sounds, and I’m fascinated with how sounds go together. When you get something that works in a particular way, it’s kind of like mixing two colors together and getting a new one.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers celebrated the release of “Hypnotic Eye” with an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” last week. The band invited Kimmel and his entire studio audience to their rehearsal space at Sony Studios in Los Angeles for performances of three songs from the new album.

“American Dream Plan B” – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

“Forgotten Man” – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

“U Get Me High” – Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers began a 30-date tour of North America on August 3 in San Diego. The tour concludes at The Forum in Los Angeles on October 10.

“Hypnotic Eye” is available now on CD, vinyl, Blu-ray and download via the links below:

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Hypnotic Eye (Download)	Buy Now	N/A	Buy Now	Buy Now	Buy Now