Remembering Echo, Tom Petty’s Overlooked Masterpiece
In the new issue of Rolling Stone, Tom Petty is asked if there’s any album he’s made that he’s not fond of. He responds by telling us that he’s not particularly thrilled with 1999’s Echo, although people have told him it’s “not that bad.” Well, I can safely say that this is an enormous udnerstatement. Not only is Echo not bad, it’s Petty’s most underrated album, and one of his best. Of course, I don’t blame Tom for not being a fan of it – he recorded it while going through a bitter divorce, and it features some of the darkest songs he’s ever recorded. But while that experience may not be fun for Petty to relive, the album is extremely rewarding on repeated listens. Petty has always been the kind of artist whose songs are from the hip, and often feel autobiographical, but this is the rare album where[...]