315: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers — Damn The Torpedoes (1979, Backstreet/MCA/Geffen)

Overall rating: 5

Level of prior familiarity: 5

How I listened: Spotify + Echo

In my Yankee Hotel Foxtrot review I discussed albums that I consider my favorite that were verifiably not the artist’s best album. Damn The Torpedoes is both Tom Petty’s best album, and my favorite.

I’ll also venture to say that this is the finest thing Jimmy Iovine has ever produced.

There are a bunch of hits on this album. “Refugee,” “Here Comes My Girl,” and “Even The Losers” are the first three songs on the record! “Don’t Do Me Like That” was a big one as well, and songs like “Century City” and “Louisiana Rain” remain live favorites. But you really can’t say anything bad about any of these songs. Tom Petty is one of the greatest songwriters that ever was, on par with Lennon/McCartney, Tom Waits, Springsteen, and the rest.

I’m not gonna say anything else about this album. It’s perfect, and I’m going to leave it that way.

Oh, and in case you didn’t notice, this is #315 on the RS500, which means I’m going out of order here. That’s how this is gonna go: if I feel like playing an album for some reason, I’m just gonna listen to it. In this case, I told Alexa to play Damn The Torpedoes while I was doing the dishes, knocking another one off the list.