release date: Sep. 30, 1985
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,96]
producer: Tom Waits
label: Island Records - nationality: USA
Track highlights: 1. "Singapore" - 3. "Cemetery Polka" - 4. "Jockey Full of Bourbon" - 6. "Big Black Mariah" - 8. "Hang Down Your Head" (4,5 / 5) - 9. "Time" - 10. "Rain Dogs" - 13. "Gun Street Girl" - 14. "Union Square" (4 / 5) - 15. "Blind Love" - 16. "Walking Spanish" - 17. "Downtown Train" (4,5 / 5) - 19. "Anywhere I Lay My Head"
9th studio album by Tom Waits and his second self-produced release after being associated with Island Records. "Hang Down Your Head" is the first time (and only time here) that Waits shares credit with his wife, Kathleen Brennan, who on later albums contributes as writer on almost every song since 1999.
As with the predecessor Swordfishtrombones (Sep. 1983) he is here in his experimental corner of singer / songwriter and bluesy jazz. Rain Dogs is another really fine album, although, I don't think it reaches the same extraordinary high level. Perhaps because it's based on the same mechanisms that we first encountered on the '83 album. Still, this is more than just a repeat of his latest album, and it also contains several original compositions. It's Waits' third album in a row - his fourth in total - to make it into "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". The album is also included as number #21 on a Rolling Stone album list ranking the best albums of the 1980s, as well as being featured on the list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" also by Rolling Stone.
Recommended.
[ allmusic.com, Q Magazine, Mojo, Rolling Stone, Uncut 5 / 5 stars ]
