Neatly fitting in between 1993's GREATEST HITS and the 5-CD PLAYBACK box set that came out two years later, this 34-track collection is a chronological tour of Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers' MCA Records material. The consistent quality found throughout this two-CD set that's bookended by the sinister-sounding "Breakdown" and chiming "Surrender"(a song Petty wrote in the '70s but didn't get around to recording until August 2000) boggles the mind.
Tight playing and a palpable sense of passion from the four-piece Heartbreakers transform songs like "Even the Losers", "Rebels" and "Mary Jane's Last Dance" into rock & roll manna. Elsewhere, this Floridian singer-songwriter's sharp eye for pop culture ("Jammin' Me") and storytelling mastery ("Into the Great Wide Open," "Two Gunslingers") become pleasantly recurring characteristics. The inclusion of a scorching live version of the Byrds' "So You Wanna Be a Rock 'N' Roll Star" show Petty and company to be as potent on stage as in the studio. By the end of this musical tour it's hard to argue with the lofty statement Cameron Crowe makes in his liner notes calling Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers "...the greatest and most consistent American band of the last twenty-five years..."
The most striking thing about this two-disc overview of Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers is the powerful case it makes for its creators as the most consistent band of not only their era, but of all time. Think of another rocker who can claim to have created a quarter-century of recordings that, when ranked on a 10-point scale, never dip below a solid 7? Indeed, while disc 1 reflects a marginally more aggressive mindset than disc 2, it wouldn't be difficult to imagine the discs flip-flopped; maturity has yet to induce lethargy for Petty and the boys. Occupying the solid middle ground between the 18-track Greatest Hits and the six-disc Playback box, Anthology serves up 34 selections, nearly every one an FM staple. From 1976's "Breakdown" through the collection's only new offering, 2000's "Surrender," this retrospective never flags. But how could it? --Steven Stolder
