More Mazzy Star than Highway Star.
More Mazzy Star than "Highway Star." YouTube screengrab of the "Runnin' Down a Dream" video / Cooking Vinyl

Isobel Campbell, "Runnin' Down a Dream" (Cooking Vinyl)

A peak in the late Tom Petty's catalog, 1989's "Runnin' Down a Dream" ranks as one of the best driving songs ever, up there with Golden Earring's "Radar Love," Can's "Full Moon on the Highway," and Neu!'s "Hallogallo." (I don't condone driving excessively fast—or driving at all—but if you have to do it, "Runnin' Down a Dream" sure makes the experience more thrilling.) Of all the people you could imagine covering this tune of understated machismo and vehicular velocity Viagra, cellist/singer Isobel Campbell—formerly of Belle & Sebastian and frequent collaborator with Mark Lanegan—might be one of the last. But the Scottish queen of twee done did it, and it's a cool interpretation.

To nobody's surprise, Campbell eradicates the original's testosteronic guitar soloing and softens its pistoning beats, leaving us with a hushed confession that's more Mazzy Star than "Highway Star." Instead of alpha-male guitars ejaculating all over the road, Campbell deploys an oscillating synth as minimal as anything on a Moon Duo or Suicide record and chiming guitar accents that do not inspire pedal-to-the-metal shenanigans. What a lovely, introspective reinvention.

You can find "Runnin' Down a Dream" on Campbell's new album, There Is No Other (Gene Clark homage?), out February 7, 2020; it's her first solo LP since 2006's Milkwhite Sheets.