Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers "Damn the Torpedoes" [1979]

How anyone so dedicated to Roger McGuinn's nasal vocal delivery ever got a record deal in the first place is a conundrum for the ages. Yet somehow Tom Petty and his bar band of faceless rednecks managed to do just that, and the end result following this release became a decade-plus onslaught of watered-down Top 40 rock from the only group of poseurs who could make Springsteen's E Street Band seem meaningful. Or palatable. Managing to avoid both the urgency of punk and anything rhythmically relatable to disco, the Heartbreakers on this late-70's "effort" actually outdid Johnny Thunders' band of the same name in providing woefully vacuous content and disappointing its listening audience. Essentially, this record consists solely of "some silly little things, don't add up to nothin'." You said it, bud. Fuck the torpedoes, damn this album.