release date: Sep. 1993
format: cd
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,33]
producer: Tom Waits
label: Island Records - nationality: USA
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| Poster from the play |
12th studio album by Tom Waits following one year after Bone Machine is also his final release of new material to be issued on Island Records. Shortly after his departure from Island, the label released the compilation Beautiful Maladies (The Island Years) (1998).
The Black Rider is a combination of material written and composed specifically for the album blended with tracks taken from the play / 'musical fable' "The Black Rider: The Casting of the Magic Bullets" (which premiered in 1990) - a collaboration between stage director Robert Wilson, Tom Waits, and beat author William S. Burroughs, who himself participates on the album's sixth composition.
As with Waits' later performances [Alice / Blood Money] in collaboration with Wilson, I never found this album particularly good - perhaps the staging was excellent, but the music does not work particularly well as a pure album release.
[ allmusic.com 2 / 5, Mojo, Q Magazine 3 / 5, Rolling Stone, Select 4 / 5 stars ]
