Between 1976 and 1978, when Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers and You're Gonna Get It came out, the Southern rock of Lynyrd Skynyrd was dying and punk was on the rise. This was the backdrop for the controlled anger of such early Heartbreakers songs as "Breakdown," "Rockin' Around (With ... 

 The Heartbreakers got derailed on You’re Gonna Get It! Some of the songs sounded like the group had traded Byrds and Stones fixations for Foreigner and Foghat, though “I Need to Know” stood up to the best of the new-wave era’s revamped power pop.  

 If none of the songs on the Heartbreakers’ first two albums hit the ball out of the park, “Refugee,” from Damn the Torpedoes, did. The fuck-you snarl of Petty’s nasal, Dylan-via-Jagger delivery and the bright, crunchy drive of Mike Campbell’s Telecaster rendered “Refugee” 1980’s m... 

 The band employed that formula to massive commercial success on the folk-rocking Hard Promises and synth-embellished Long After Dark, which together spawned hits in “The Waiting,” “A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me),” “You Got Lucky,” and “Change of Heart.” Those tracks are the highl... 

 The band employed that formula to massive commercial success on the folk-rocking Hard Promises and synth-embellished Long After Dark, which together spawned hits in “The Waiting,” “A Woman in Love (It’s Not Me),” “You Got Lucky,” and “Change of Heart.” Those tracks are the highl... 

 Their sixth album, Southern Accents, is a top-notch collection of songs written and performed from the disparate perspectives of characters from Petty’s Gainesville, Florida, childhood. With an expanded musical palette–courtesy of producer Dave Stewart, who brought in horns, sitar, background... 

 The live Pack Up the Plantation offers competent performances of Petty’s best-loved songs; unfortunately, the band brings absolutely nothing new to the material.  

 On Let Me Up, the Heartbreakers return to the winning formula of their early-Eighties hits. Kicking off with the AC/DC crunch of “Jammin’ Me” (cowritten with Bob Dylan), the band is clearly back to punching the rock & roll time clock. Aside from the rueful, mandolin-fueled “It’ll All Wo... 

 In 1988, Petty took a break from his Heartbreakers and joined the Traveling Wilburys, a side project featuring Bob Dylan, Roy Orbison, George Harrison, and former Electric Light Orchestra frontman Jeff Lynne. The influence of those rock & roll giants is evident on his next album, Full Moon Fever.... 

 Into the Great Wide Open picks up the old formula, but with Lynne’s bright pop sound, the music seems fresher. To be sure, Petty’s songs have more of a George Harrison–Jeff Lynne feel to them here, and on “Learning to Fly” he even mimics Harrison’s vocal style. Petty seems to be t... 

 Greatest Hits is a fizzy delight–and a good place for the uninitiated to start.  

 Petty’s move from MCA to Warner Bros. found him working with producer Rick Rubin, who had successfully revitalized the career of the legendary country star Johnny Cash with a set of stripped-down folk music. He does the same for Petty, whose new folk and country-style songs on Wildflowers are w... 

 For those who prefer to dig a bit deeper than just the singles, Anthology is a fine compilation, too. The six-disc Playback is overkill.  

 The Heartbreakers’ spotty soundtrack album She’s the One continues in the vein of Wildflowers but with more of a Lindsey Buckingham pop feel. It’s most notable for an interesting cover version of Beck’s self-deprecating “Asshole.”  

 Echo, Petty’s darkest, most desperate album, was recorded after the singer’s divorce from his wife of more than two decades. With Rubin at the controls again and Petty’s voice be-coming more raggedly Dylanesque than ever, these songs of sorrow and regret appear in an appropriately spare con... 

 For those who prefer to dig a bit deeper than just the singles, Anthology is a fine compilation, too. The six-disc Playback is overkill.  

 For all his crotchetiness and redundancy, Petty has managed to cross over into middle age with dignity. 2006’s Highway Companion, Petty’s third solo album, was produced by Jeff Lynne, but the disc’s sound is stripped down and simple. Songs like “Square One” and “Saving Grace” measur... 

 The Last DJ is just as dark, but this time Petty’s anger is pointed outward, at the corrupt modern record industry. 

 But Petty more than made up for that half-baked live album with the four-disc The Live Anthology in 2009. Taking the best tracks from thirty years of concerts, the collection eschews obvious hits for smoking covers (“I’m A Man,” “Diddy Wah Daddy”) and deep album cuts (“Southern Accent...