relase date: Oct. 23, 2001
format: cd
[album rate: 4 / 5]
producer: Bones Howe
label: Elektra / Rhino / Warner - nationality: USA
16-track best of compilation by Tom Waits, basically containing some of his best-known songs from the first seven albums of the 70s - all compositions from his time at Asylum Records.
It is of course an almost impossible task to select this man's best tracks for a single CD release, as he has simply made so many worthy songs, but what is equally important: he has released entire albums of classic material that should be seen in context, and yet... for people who don't know his entire repertoire, this might be a good place to start.
Personally, I would undoubtedly have chosen other songs from this period, and I'm really surprised that only a single track has been selected from his first two albums, only two from Small Change (1976), whereas a less significant album like Foreign Affairs (1977) might boast of having as many as four tracks represented. And then all the tracks from the seven albums are scattered across the album in what looks like random order - starting with the title track from his final album on Asylum Heartattack and Vine (1980) and ending with his classic "Tom Traubert's Blues" from Small Change. Despite these slightly annoying decisions about the album, it can't take away the feeling of being a mighty fine collection.
