Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers: Echo

In the two decades since the release of the 1979 classic Damn The Torpedoes, Tom Petty has maintained enough creative and commercial consistency to support a great five-disc box set (1995's Playback), survive shifting trends throughout the '80s and '90s, and enjoy success as a solo act, bandleader, and supporting player in Traveling Wilburys. Even his most forgettable albums are rarely worse than mediocre, and each invariably delivers a few strong, mitigating singles to justify the efforts of completists. Echo, Petty's first studio album since the unjustly unheralded soundtrack to the godawful movie She's The One, finds a comfortable place in his catalog between his okay albums—Let Me Up (I've Had Enough), Into The Great Wide Open—and his great ones, from Damn The Torpedoes to the solo Full Moon Fever. Dominated by tepid-but-compelling mid-tempo material, Echo could have used more of the hellfire Petty brings to "Free Girl Now," but "Room At The Top," "Counting On You," and the especially fine title track make the most of the record's knockabout pace. The whole affair drops dead in spots, particularly during the plodding, obvious "Swingin'," but the dull moments are washed away by patches of brilliance and the continued consistency of the on-again, off-again Heartbreakers. Echo may just be the sound of Petty biding his time before his next inspired classic, but a Tom Petty album that's merely good is still worth hearing.