Greatest Hits

TOM PETTY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS: "Greatest Hits" (MCA)

IT'S NOT easy to get excited about Tom Petty. He'll always be the Byrd who couldn't quite fly high enough to make it to the nest. As Greatest Hits reminds us, however, while what Petty himself does has been done before, it's rarely been done so well or for so long as it has been by The Heartbreakers.

When the band first formed almost twenty years ago in their native Gainesville, Florida, it really was Petty who got lucky. With henchmen like Benmont Tench, Mike Campbell and Howie Epstein, anybody could look good. Their early albums may have served up little more than standard Southern rock applejack but it was its brewing keg that gave it its kick and bite.

By 1979's Damn The Torpedoes, it was full speed ahead. The four tracks from that album featured here ('Refugee', 'Don't Do Me Like That', 'Even The Losers' and 'Here Comes My Girl') are bona fide classics, charred, gutsy American rock at its bloodied but unbowed best. Later, they started to get a little too smug and their ability to rock stadiums curdled into a tendency towards stadium rock. Greatest Hits, however, thankfully and tastefully spares us the worst excesses of this period.

It was Dave Stewart first (on 1985's Southern Accents) and then Jeff Lynne (on just about everything else since then) who helped Petty discover the joys of twangy, tangy pop. A convoy of radio friendly hits followed ('I Won't Back Down', 'Running' Down A Dream', 'Free Fallin'', 'Learning To Fly' and 'Into The Great Wide Open' - all included here) but along with the added sheen came a softer centre, and a split with The Heartbreakers became inevitable. This compilation and a short U.S. tour in the new year are their lap of honour.

If Greatest Hits proves anything, it's that, at 42, Tom Petty's best work is behind him. From here on in, he'll just have to make do with his role as the only living Travelling Wilbury.

• Liam Fay