Release and Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Blender | |
| Allmusic | |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Robert Christgau | B+ |
The album became Petty's commercial peak as an artist, helped by favorable critical reviews and three hit singles. The album was released on April 24, 1989 and rose to eventually peak at #3 on the Billboard 200 and number 8 in the UK. There were five singles released from the album, two hitting the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and three topping the Mainstream Rock chart. The RIAA certified Full Moon Fever 5x platinum on October 5, 2000 and the CRIA certified it 6x platinum on September 18, 1991.
Critical praise was generally high, with Allmusic giving the album 4 and a half stars, admiring the craft of the album and rivaling it with the Heartbreakers' Damn the Torpedoes. This review notes there are no weak tracks on the album. calling it a "minor masterpiece." The original Rolling Stone review compared the album favorably to the Traveling Wilburys first album, Volume 1, saying it has the "same restless charm," but commenting that the album, at times, seems "sprawling." The review claims the album is "another rewarding, low-key side project for Petty," giving it three and a half stars out of five. A later Rolling Stone biographer claims Full Moon Fever was a "masterful solo album."
Read more about this topic: Full Moon Fever
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