Hi Will! A great track! The parts that stood out to me were:

1) the intro chord progression is wonderful - if I got it correctly, it went C - Am - F - Dm - Dm6 - G - Em - C ... that Dm6 (if that's what it is) is a great touch. I don't know if this progression repeats elsewhere in the song other than the outro - but I wanted it to!
2) Solo - very powerful and I was glad it repeated - it created a good yet complimentary change to add variation.

Regarding the AI vocal, I wouldn't have known it was Tom Petty unless you'd mentioned it. For me, it was the lack of rhotic 'r' that I find is distinctive in Petty's vocal. While you did the right thing in mentioning it (IMO), it is different enough you could drop the reference I think. BTW, you're natural vocal I heard on some other tracks is good - reminded me of Andy McMaster from late 70's British band The Motors.

Not sure if you're looking for feedback on the mix, I would've loved it if the drums and bass were a little more forward (more volume - in my ears anyway) because they became momentarily lost behind the tremelo of the guitar from time-to-time, with maybe a bit of hanging delay or reverb on the final chord in the outro to lengthen it a bit. Overall, this is a very appealing song and good on the ears!

I've had a sneaky peak at several of your songs on SC - you've got a really good catalogue of songs there, and very listenable.

Andrew

Regards,
Andrew D
Adelaide, Sth Aust
Soundcloud: https://on.soundcloud.com/SQE4btVvNVkLq74e9
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@andrewoftheantipodes