Tom Waits

Mule Variations
$13.98
This is Tom Waits' poppiest album to date. Certainly his early albums have more of a mainstream appeal, but this is his first album (at least since his noisy makeover with 1983's SWORDFISHTROMBONES) where the focus is primarily on concise song structure, and not an overarching theme or pure sound. As such, even though it contains the same amount of crazed ranting and backwoods blues as regular Waits albums, it's the easiest listening that the man has offered up since he used to confine himself to barroom piano ballads.

In a way, Mule Variations feels like The Best Of Tom Waits, as the songs touch on just about every phase of his career. "Big in Japan" opens the disc with a noisy but lively BONE MACHINE-style rhythm, followed the close-mic'd, percussion-heavy sound of SWORDFISHTROMBONES with "Lowside of the Road", then by classic sentimental Waits on "Hold On". The slick "Get Behind the Mule" could be a holdover from FRANKS WILD YEARS or RAIN DOGS, and the sparse "House Where Nobody Lives" takes us back to Waits' very first album. I could play this game all day, but it would make for a dull review, and I don't want to suggest that these songs are mere rehashes of work he's already done. "Cold Water" is an exuberant backwoods shuffle that lights up the first half of the album, and "Chocolate Jesus" is a more subdued minimalist blues piece that similarly is the highpoint of the album's second half. In fact, just about every song here is a winner, but since they don't have any overarching theme or consistent sound, you might not notice their charms at first. Mule Variations is definitely an album that needs to sit in your collection for a while to make all its attractions apparent.

This is the first record that Waits recorded for the independent label Anti, and it seems like it was either a palette-cleanser or a consolidation of his skills, because it's a far cry from the densely unified records that preceded it (BONE MACHINE and THE BLACK RIDER) and the ambitious albums that followed it (ALICE and BLOOD MONEY). Despite seeming like a very laid back guy, there aren't many moments on record when Tom Waits just kicks back and belts out a few good songs in no particular order, so this album is a rare opportunity to hear him at what appears to be his most casual. It's nice to know that he still strikes gold, even when he's not reaching for the stars.

Rain Dogs
$11.98
I learned of Tom Waits in the last year and thought "where have you been all my life?"

This album is great, quirky fun. The poetry is fabulous. Some of the songs carry me away somewhere while others have me bouncing around, giggling and smiling like a ten-year old girl. The only one Waits song that could make this album more perfect would be the addition of Step Right Up.

I must warn Waits newbies that this is musical-art, not anything like you'd find in the Top 40. My fiance (a top-40-phile; poor dear) HATES this album with a flaming passion. He looks like he wants to claw his own face off every time I put it on, he also hates The Red Elvises, it's sad really.

If you like things like experimental jazz and non-linear poetry I think you'll really adore this album. If you think Casey Kasem is god's gift to radio, you'll probably want to skip this one.

Swordfishtrombones
$11.98
It's hard to imagine that a vocalist with a voice as bad as Tom Waits can make a career selling records. Thankfully (mercifully) many of the cuts have long long instrumental introductions such as 'Dave The Butcher'. The opening cut, 'Underground', will be enough to frighten most listeners away to begin with. To call this 'music' cutting edge progressive alternative experimental is like dropping a can of paint on the sidewalk and calling it modern art. The 'music' (noise) on this disk is different. But that doesn't make it music. I generously gave it 2 stars for the high pain threshold of the backup band.

Glitter and Doom Live
$17.98
After hearing the amazing 2 and 1/2 hour free download of Waits'
Atlanta show from this tour (available from NPR), I was glad to see the release of this sampler of other performances from the tour.The price is good for a 2 CD set but as a download Amazon does not include the spoken word material from the second disc and the price is the same as the 2 CD set. I'm sure this is a fine set from Tom but I can't justify paying full price for a download that only contains a portion of the CD release. How about adding the rest of the material for the download Amazon?