Customer Reviews

Echo

5 star:		(88)
4 star:		(45)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I've recently come back to this cd after not listening to it for awhile...my loss because this is one of the most consistent and mature rock albums Tom Petty ever made. There are 3 gems on this that pu this over the top for me : Room At The Top, Swinging and Ome More Day, One More Night. A great effort by the most consistent, tightest rock band around.

As a long time (20 years) Petty fan who owns every album including his box set, I can't understand how Echo can be considered inferior to any of his other works. Yes, the sound is still the same - you've heard these tunes before - but isn't that what we love about Tom and the Heartbreakers in the first place. Echo is long overdue with a few classics that are among his best. The album flow follows the same patterns of the past, but once you play it through, you'll repeat the disc over and over until sooner or later you won't be able to get the damn songs out of your head. Not being able to put another disc in the player sums it up best. If that's not a sign of a 5-Star disc, I don't know what is. Lastly, just caught Tom and the Heartbreakers in NYC at Irving Plaza. Best show I've ever seen and they still forgot to play almost everyone of their greatest tunes including some from Echo!!! Bottom line: It's as good as it gets.

There are some people who, quite sadly and unfortunatley, think aging rock stars don't have it anymore. That they should call it a day because they don't deliver the goods anymore. I can't think of anyone who fits that description, but the same can be said for the new hot acts who, let's face it, don't really deliver. Tom Petty is one of a number of rockers who are not only still out there giving us their absolute best, but he is a master craftsman and songwriter who still delivers strong, potent music as if it were still his late 70's to late 80's heyday. "Echo" is an astonishingly tight and rocking rock and roll album that proves that Petty's talent and musicianship is still as sharp as it's ever been. I will go so far to say that this CD is his best effort since "Full Moon Fever". The majority of the album, give or take 5 songs or so, is pretty much upbeat and rocking. The first track, "Room At The Top", has that classic Petty sound, but it's a track I don't really listen too. "I'm A Free Girl Now" is one those good 'ol Petty rock stompers that has that signature sound and edge to it that makes it, undeniably, a Petty tune. "Lonesome Sundown" is a pretty ballad-y type tune that starts off with a western-y type of piano intro that sounds like you were walking through the desert with your horse. Nice tune. "Swingin'" is another track that has that slow melody to it, with that Petty drawl. I don't think there is another modern rock artist out there who can pop out very simple, quick, instantly catchy rock tunes than Petty. This disc is filled with a few of them that grab you by the ear and don't let go until it's over. "Accused Of Love" is one such track. Others that fill the bill include "Won't Last Long", with it's driving guitar intro and melody and Petty's rhythmic vocals, this track is one catchy tune. "I Don't Wanna Fight" isn't the deepest song with deep lyrics, but it has a hard rock and roll rhythm to it and that's fine by me!. "This One's For Me" is another short pop/rock tune that is pleasing to the ear but, like a previous song title, "won't last long" after you hear it. "About To Give Out" is a song that has a strong rock tune to it and a great catchy vocal workout from Petty. Another great track. "Billy The Kid" is a song that starts off with a snappy intro and quickly delves into another rock riff. It's a great track. The title tune, "Echo", is a long and slower song that sounds like vintage Tom. "Rhino Skin" is an interesting track that says you need "elephant balls". Starts off slow, but then kicks into a catchy little riff. While most of the album is a top notch winner, there are a few tracks that I could of done without. "One More Day, One More Night", and "No More" are fine tunes, but both are soft and slow and don't deliver like the rest of the album. Petty has been hailed as a rock genius and one of the few rockers who tells it like it is in straight forward rock and roll. He is still that guy, and this CD is proof positive of that. Plus, you don't really become interesting until your an aging rock star anyway. Keep it up, Tom.

"Room at the Top" quickly sets a plaintive tone on "Echoes." It's a simple, sincere song where Tom Petty sounds at peace with himself and reflective. While these emotions don't last the entire way through, it's a special start to a great album.

Petty hails from Florida and now lives in California, but "Echoes" has a Midwestern feel, an aura that is real and down to earth. A common theme throughout this CD is Petty's usual tale of being down on his luck and bouncing back with gusto, which, truth be told, never gets old to listen to. Petty and his Heartbreakers don't exactly start "Echoes" off with a sonic boom. Save for the familiar jangle of "Free Girl Now," the songs begin sparse and laid back, not at all a bad thing. However, if you're looking for standard Petty rock and roll, give "Echoes" some time; there's some killer material here, starting with "Swingin'" on down. "Swingin'" is a harmonica-laden tune with that aforementioned never-say-die attitude, reminiscent of Petty's "Won't Back Down" days. The song comes off as a bar-stomping ode to all the fighters of the world, complete with a memorable name-check of famous past musicians who never gave up, despite their hardships in life.

Some of these songs contain Petty's brand of old-fashioned sounds and themes, like "Accused of Love" and the title track. Others rock out splendidly -- "Won't Last Long" being a prime example. "I'm down but it won't last long!" Petty cries faithfully on the song, sounding both retro and new at the same time. "I Don't Wanna Fight" is a spark plug of a tune, surprisingly sung by Mike Campbell, a virtual clone of Petty's voice. It turns out to be one of the CD's best tracks.

As "Echoes" moves along, you begin to appreciate the no frills attitude of the Heartbreakers. "No More" is a simple and plaintive track, resigned, but also hopeful and optimistic; it's a quiet song about staying true to your ideals. By comparison, "About to Give Out" is a good-time rocker, a rollicking tune that captures resignation in a different sense. "Rhino Skin" is an eloquent track about staying tough in a world full of pressure, a theme Petty knows and sings about well. The album's closer, "One More Day, One More Night," ends "Echoes" dramatically, and like the start of the CD, it's mostly quiet and simple, yet not as much at peace as the leadoff gem.

Bravo to Petty and his Heartbreaker for their musical integrity and talent. This CD is one of the band's best.

Some complain that 'Echo' is a much duller affair than earlier efforts, the production is "bland," they say. However, that is what makes 'Echo' not only a great rock 'n roll record, but an opportunity to breathe in the midst of the constant onslaught of pop chart formula records full of cluttered, synthesized production and pretty girls and boys offering their oh so salacious voices for exorbitant sums of money from teenage wallets. 'Echo' is a dagger in the hearts of the "rock is dead" mantra. Yes, this album is raw, and thank God! There is plenty of pop production to be found these days, and if Petty threw his hat into that ring, oh, what a sad statement it would have been! Instead, we get a collection of aggressive yet tantalizingly delicate rock n' roll that is bound to shock listeners with its almost nostalgic remembrance of a time and place where rock was born: thirty years ago in Woodstock, Abbey Roads Studio, in Jimmy Page's guitar, in Jimi Hendrix's electric ode to our national anthem, in Bob Dylan's guttural, rhapsodic croon. Those are the places from which 'Echo' gathered its foundation, and the proof is most definitely in the pudding. Any youngster who is curious about the origins of modern day rock is advised to purchase this album, and any disenfranchised baby boomers wondering where the music went are obligated to do so.

There's 1 thing that makes me mad about this CD- it wasn't nominated for a grammy. Oh well, Tom has always been more concerned about quality music than awards! On this CD, he and the Heartbreakers have pt out their best effort in years. "Free Girl Now" gives a tormented ex-lover who has finally gotten up the nerve to leave her meddling lover her due (You go, free girl!). "Swingin'" gives a nod to some of the greatest big-band legends of the now-defunct 20th century. Then there's the tender "Room at the Top..." (wouldn't we all like to sing that to someone special?). With all that aside, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers are as strong as ever!

Room at the top, Free Girl, Swingin, and underrated song like Rhino Skin are you kidding me he is god. The best c.d. of Tom Petty not including the greatest hits. Buy it I saw it live and it rocks. Most Under Rated c.d. in the U.S.

Tom is a great artist and this album is a great one that won't disappoint.

It is reminiscent of earlier works, laid back, mellow in a lot of ways, yet kick ass in others. You'll play it all the time. Great guitar solos.

Tom Petty took a long time between his 90's albums. Wildflowers was in 1994, Into the Great Wide Open, the last album with The Heartbreakers came out in 1991. For only the third time in the decade, Petty mustered up an album of new material and headed back to the studio, again (as on "Wildflowers") with producer Rick Rubin. Once more. Rubin guided Petty through music that appears natural, unforced and from the heart.

The twist was that Petty was coming of a divorce with his wife of 20 years, and these songs reflect the turmoil in his life from the time. He has even gone as far as to say that he won't perform many of these songs again, as they're too painful for him to revisit. "Room At The Top" builds slowly, then cascades into a great Mike Campbell solo and Petty's dry vocal hits a boiling point. It's classic Petty and one of the best songs on this, maybe Petty's most under-rated album next to Long After Dark.

It is also, clearly, his most personal. "Wildflowers" often felt like Petty was delving into his personal thoughts, but songs like "One More Night One More Day" drip with sadness and pain. This is a diary of a life coming undone, in the way Phil Collins' Face Value or Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights made brilliant cathartic art from relationship pain. There is hurt (the title song, "Rhino Skin"), anger ("Go Down Swinging," "Free Girl Now") and a nostalgic wish for better memories ("Accused Of Love"). The songs on "Echo" are easily the most consistent since Full Moon Fever, with the production striking a balance somewhere between Jeff Lynne's and the oft-times too laid back pace of "Wildflowers."

"Echo" is an album of heavy substance. There are moments of brief humor ("Swinging") but just as often, a certain surliness underneath the rockers - "I Don't Wanna Fight" could easily be his best kiss-off aside from Damn the Torpedoes' "Don't Do Me Like That" - belying the Heartbreakers' usual tight and muscular playing. Had this been earlier in his career, my general thinking is that this would have been maybe two songs shorter and heralded as a masterpiece. Regardless, "Echo" is an album of such complexity and emotion, that it stands head to head with Petty and The heartbreakers' best.

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers album "Echo" is about what you'd come to expect from this band. Workmanlike and with a few standout songs, there is not a single moment that is either truly great or truly awful. "Free Girl Now" is a single the band might have recorded in 1981 or so, while the opening cut "Room at the Top" is the kind of slow song Tom perfected on his solo album "Full Moon Fever." By this point in his career, Petty has worn a groove for himself that he rarely strays from. He may get a little adventurous sonically with songs like the title track or "Billy the Kid," but he'll never stray far from home. If you're a fan of the Heartbreakers, this album will not disappoint you.