(FORTUNE Magazine) – Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Echo Warner Bros.

Wearing your heart on your sleeve has always been a tricky fashion statement to pull off without coming across like a self-pitying whiner. Not to mention that it gets old real fast. But for more than two decades Tom Petty has shaped his lonely-hearts tales of woe into defiant, nonwhiny heartland rock & roll. Ever since the six-string scarecrow declared "She's a Woman in Love...And It's Not Me" on 1981's Hard Promises, his message has been crystal clear--that which does not kill us only makes us stronger.

On Echo, the 11th album with his tight-and-trusty bare-knuckle house band, the Heartbreakers, Petty delivers 15 perfectly crafted, jangly roots-rock pleas in his pained nasal twang. Whether grappling with the guarded optimism of "Won't Last Long" or hard-luck rebellion in the rousing, Dylanesque "Swingin'," Petty may be the last true believer in America who can elevate a line like "You need rhino skin / If you're gonna begin / To walk through this world" from hard-earned life lesson into liberating state of grace.

--Chris Nashawaty