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"Echo" holds a special place in the discography of Tom Petty. The album was released in 1999 as a testament to the fruitful collaboration with producer Rick Rubin and showcases the classic sound of the Heartbreakers at the peak of their abilities. A sound that remains throughout the album compact, direct, guitar-driven, convincing and that does not feel the need to stray from the solid musical roots that have characterized this artist's work for about thirty years. It is not for its genuine sound that this important album is remembered and appreciated by Petty’s admirers.
During the making of "Echo," Tom was in crisis and gripped by a deep depression due to the premature end of his twenty-year marriage to his wife Jane. Some tracks on the album express such torments, passions, and sad emotions toward the lost love. In particular, the often introspective lyrics talk about separation, goodbyes, and the conflicts of life. Heartbreaking in this sense is the track that titles the whole work, perhaps a farewell letter to his wife presented in the form of a long and slow ballad sung by a man pierced in the soul and betrayed by the ideals he believed in. Beside the title track, there are a series of slow songs characterized by delicate sounds, continuous breaks as if they were invocations, and strong romantic accents. The opening "Room At The Top", the beautiful "Lonesome Sundown", and the heartbreaking "One More Day, One More Night" show an intimate author dealing with a series of splendid ballads in construction and interpretation. But Tom does not lose the good humor that has always distinguished him, and once it is established that to face life and shattered dreams one needs a rhinoceros skin, he entrusts rock 'n' roll with the ability to express, resist, and communicate. That's why the classic riff of the engaging "Free Girl Now" deliberately recalls the Kinks of "You Really Got Me" or the Who of "I Can't Explain", and it is not difficult to guess which free girl he is referring to. An important track, a small Petty classic that frequently concluded the brilliant American concerts of the long tour that followed the album's release, later documented on the DVD "High Grass Dogs". Supporting them with their energy are "Won't Last Long", "About To Give Out", and "I Don't Wanna Fight" exceptionally sung by the trusty Mike Campbell, while "Accused Of Love" and "This One's For Me" are the usual tributes to Byrdsian-style folk-rock.
Petty, who was passionate about western films since he was a boy, doesn’t forget to mention in "Billy The Kid" the image of the old outlaw who in the context becomes a symbol of all losers. It remains to mention, with a bitter heart, the splendid "Swingin'", a long track rich with solos that diverges from the core themes of "Echo" but allows us to listen for the last time on a record the harmony vocals of the great Howie Epstein, the handyman bassist of the Heartbreakers, who in 2003, after being dismissed from the band due to his chronic drug dependency, would die of an overdose. Another very hard loss, foreshadowed by the gray cover photo, which was very difficult for Tom to accept, and that surrounds "Echo" with even more sad omens without, however, diminishing its rich emotional intensity.
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